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Garmin Vivoactive 3 In-Depth Review

It’s been about 6 weeks since Garmin first announced the new Vivoactive 3 GPS watch. This watch builds upon the Vivoactive HR by adding in more features including things like contactless payments with Garmin Pay, as well as structured workouts. It, of course, retains the sports-focused features of previous models as well as the Garmin Connect IQ app platform.

Over these last 6 weeks I’ve been pounding the pavement and trails with it. From cycling to running on both surfaces, and even a bit of swimming tossed in. All while doing so in the busiest travel season of the year. And the best part? For half that time I wore the Fitbit Ionic on the other wrist, before then switching in the last three weeks to wearing the Apple Watch Series 3 LTE concurrently (other wrist). Which rounds out the three top competitors for fitness-focused smart watches in the mid-range market.

In the case of the Vivoactive 3, Garmin sent over a loaner to check out. I’ll be sending that back to them shortly, and going to go out and get my own through normal retail channels. If you find this review useful – hit up the links at the bottom to save some dough and support the site. I appreciate it.

With that – let’s get cooking!

What’s in the box:

At this juncture, I actually don’t have a final box to share with ya. Instead, I’ve got the box contents – which is essentially just the watch and the charging cable. Down the road, once I get my own from retail, I’ll stick some box shots in here. They’ll be sexy shots…at least as sexy as cardboard can be anyway.

Note that the charger cable is the same as almost all of the existing Garmin watches released in 2017 – their new ‘Garmin universal’ charger.

This is used in the Fenix 5/5S/5X/FR935/Vivosport, and probably a few others I’m forgetting. About the only units it’s not used on are re-incarnations of other older watches (like the ‘new’ FR30, which is really just FR35 hardware from last year with different software), as well as the Vivomove HR, which was too slim for the new connector (fashion focused).

The band meanwhile, is a 20mm standard watch style band – so you can swap it with whatever you fancy, be it Garmin or otherwise.

And finally, I’m sure the box will have some paper junk in there like a three line quick-start guide. Obviously, after this post it’s unlikely you’ll need to consult with such documentation.

Weights and Sizes:

Taking a quick detour to look at the sizes and weights of the watches, I’ve lined up the Apple Watch Series 3 LTE with the Fitbit Ionic and Garmin Vivoactive 3. Essentially, what are likely to be the three most popular fitness/sports focused watches this fall for the mid-range market (the Samsung Gear Sport hasn’t started shipping yet).

Here’s how the three look side by side:

As you can see, they’re all fairly similar in sizes. The Garmin is a bit more rounded than the Apple Watch, while the Fitbit is a touch bit bigger in terms of face. Ultimately though, they’re all fairly similar.

Here’s a look at them from a slightly different angle:

Then to take a crack at the weights, I put all three on the scale. I used the sport band in the case of the Fitbit Ionic, merely because I hate the regular stock band. You can check out that in-depth review though for weights of all the band types.

All the weights are in grams, with the Fitbit and Garmin units being identical at 43g, and the Apple Watch sitting in at 63g. Keep in mind this is the 42mm Apple Watch, so it’d be slightly heavier than the 38mm variant.

The Basics:

I’m going to start off with the basics, and then we’ll jump into the sport aspects in a section further down. With the Vivoactive 3 being part of the Vivo family, it means that a core piece of that is related to just day to day activity tracking such as steps and sleep. Before that though, let’s talk about how to interact with the thing.

The unit has a touchscreen display, as well as one button on the right side (unless you flip it over, in which case it’s on the left side), as well as a touch-sensitive swipe area on the left side (again, unless you flip it over). The touch-sensitive area allows you to swipe up and down through pages or menus.

What is interesting is the ability to invert the unit so that the button is on your left. This is done via the Garmin Connect app, which simply flips over the screen. You’ll also probably want to flip the bands as well, so that the clasps are ‘proper’. All of which takes about 3 seconds.

Next, by default you have the default watch face shown. Like most Garmin wearables, you can download watch faces from the Connect IQ store – as well as create your own with photos and such. If you left it the way you got it, you’ll see your step, stair, and intensity minutes targets listed on the screen behind the watch face:

Each of these goals can be tweaked, or left dynamic as is the case of steps, which will automatically shift each day depending on what you’ve done recently. Walk more, it raises the goal. Fall off the walking boat, and it lowers it.

You can swipe up/down through the widget pages at any time to see core stats like steps, stairs, weather, and so on. Here’s a quick gallery of a few of the default widget pages, though you can certainly add more Garmin and 3rd party ones:

You’ll notice up above ones like steps, which you can then tap on to get a bit more historical detail on. In the case of steps you’ll see your progress towards your goal steps along the edge (4600 goal steps for today), and then in the inside of that you’ll see the slight red inactivity bar as well (meaning I haven’t walked enough steps lately).

Similarly, we’ve got the 24×7 HR graph, which by default shows the last four hours:

But you can tap that and look at aspects like resting heart rate (RHR). This is useful for tracking excess fatigue, as well as impending sickness (in my case anyway). I wrote a super-detailed post on resting HR and 24×7 HR monitoring here.

The heart rate sensor on the Vivoactive 3 follows that of the Fenix 5 and other 2017 watches, which records your heart rate at 1-second intervals constantly. This is a change from 2016 and previous watches, which were far less frequent (up to gaps of hours sometimes).

Along the same lines of heart rate, we’ve got the new stress stats. These were added this past spring with the Vivosmart 3, and have now been carried over into almost all other Garmin wearable devices released this year. These stats monitor how miserable your day has been, and report that back on a numerical scale. The higher the stress value, the more sucky things have gone for you.

All of this is then viewable on Garmin Connect Mobile later on as well, so you can track stress over time and across multiple days:

And that’s really the case across all stats, be it walking or calories or stairs:

Finally, we’ve got the sleep side of things, which the unit tracks automatically. You simply fall asleep each night, and it tracks it for ya. Note that it doesn’t track naps though. If you sleep multiple times in the day, you won’t get ‘credit’ for that.

(Minor note: The sleep times on these screenshots are offset by 8 hours due to an interesting quirk with when you don’t update the preferred tracker to a new time zone, and your old tracker isn’t used after your transatlantic flight. Totally my fault, but figured I’d note in case people wonder.)

The sleep times (start/end) seem to be pretty accurate within a couple minutes, but I have no tangible way to determine accuracy on the other claims in terms of sleep phases/portions. I am glad to see that, generally speaking, it doesn’t false trigger me as asleep if I’m just reading on my phone or watching YouTube videos before bed.

Next, to be clear, the Vivoactive 3 does NOT have music capabilities in it. It can control the music on your phone (e.g. stopping/starting it), but does not have any method or storage for music on the watch itself. That would require additional storage, a different Bluetooth stack configuration, and likely other changes.

Finally, for lack of anywhere else to mention it – let’s talk briefly about the backlight. It’s bright as a lighthouse. Too bright for my liking in fact, but the good news is you can turn down the brightness, as well as the automatic gesture activation of said lighthouse. That’s my recommended settings here, is to put the backlight at about 10-20%, and then to turn off gesture activation, except in workouts. Further, I always lock the screen to prevent accidental touches. The first settings will save your batteries, and locking the screen will help minimize false touches. The most recent firmware helps significantly, but it’s still not perfect. Especially in the shower – it’ll go crazy with false-touches by strong water pressure (rain is fine).

Garmin Pay:

Next up we’ve got Garmin Pay. The Vivoactive 3 is Garmin’s first device to offer contactless payments (NFC), which enables you to just tap your wrist against a reader and pay for fitness-focused things, like McDonald’s or Dunkin’ Donuts. Or perhaps that extra chocolatey creation.

To get started though, you’ll need a bank that’s supported. Garmin has a current list of them here (well, soon they will anyway), but I’ll save you some trouble: Your bank probably isn’t on the list. Especially if you’re outside the US. But even if you’re in the US, you’ve got a barely single digit chance your bank is there.

And that’s not totally Garmin’s fault. Fitbit is suffering the same issues. Apple is a few years down the road – so many banks support their payment solutions. And keep in mind, every vendor that gets into this had to individually approach and negotiate with every bank. Yes, every bank in the world. It’s more or less a nightmare. Garmin has somewhat outsourced the payment processing aspects to a company called FitPay. But really, Garmin is still heavily involved in it – especially the negotiations with larger banks.

In my case, none of my multitude of credit cards or banks that I have in the US are supported. Nor any of my French bank accounts here. So instead Garmin sent over a small $20 prepaid card to see how it works. In return, I stuck $20 in the package that the Vivoactive 3 will go back to them in.

First up is using Garmin Connect Mobile to get it added into my account:

The entire process is pretty quick and can be done by either scanning the credit card, or by manually entering in the numbers.

Upon completion of that process, it’ll activate the card, which takes a few more seconds. From there you’ll see it within your Garmin Pay wallet, which shows any cards you’ve added. You can also temporarily suspend cards from the watch, as well as delete them. Also, along the way the watch required a pin be added for when you use the card.

With the tech all set, I was off to find a contactless payment terminal at a store in my neighborhood. While I live in the heart of the city (Paris), and while almost every store has a contactless payment terminal…almost none of them work. The last time I found one that worked was for a coffee machine on the side of the highway at a rest stop. Even the Starbucks ones don’t work here. Nor the grocery stores, or the Metro system.

But ya know what does work? McDonald’s. And thus, enjoy:

In general though, if your bank is supported then you’re golden Which is basically the same story as on Fitbit. On Apple’s Watch it’s got far greater coverage. but keep in mind the coverage will dramatically increase in the coming months. I’d expect by early next spring you’ll have tons more banks around the world that you don’t today.

In either case, the underlying tech (NFC) is well established – it’s just a matter of the financial world bureaucracy catching up. Having worked in that world for a while…nothing moves fast when they don’t want it to.

Sport Usage:

Next up we’ve got using it in sport. After all, that’s likely why you bought a GPS watch. To begin, you’ll simply tap that silver button. That’ll show you two sports on the main page (default is Run and Bike), and then you can tap the little colorful dots to get the additional sports.

These sports are individually customizable, so you can tweak settings per sport, mostly on the watch itself.

For example, in running you’ve got three customizable data pages (screens), plus a HR zone gauge screen. All of the three screens though have to share either a 1, 2, 3, or 4 data field layout, which is kinda quirky. I’d like to have one page set as 3 field, one as 4 field, etc…

Choosing the four field layout for a moment, within that you’ve basically got two middle fields and two edge fields:

The challenge here is that the data fields you can stick in them are limited by their location. For the two upper/lower edge fields, you’ve only got the following fields: Timer, heart rate, calories, distance, time of day.

Whereas for the middle fields you’ve got a boatload of options, pretty much all the ones and boatloads more than you’d expect from any running or cycling watch.

What’s annoying about the top fields being limited though is I like to set up a lap-specific page, that has: Lap Time, Lap Distance, Lap Pace, and Heart Rate (current). I can’t do that here, for no good reason.

Garmin notes that if you use the 3-data field configuration, then you can configure all three fields as you see fit, and aren’t limited to the subset as per the four field configuration.

In addition to customizing data fields, you’ve also got alerts for metrics like heart rate, run/walk, pace, time, distance, cadence, and calories. As well as standard features on Garmin wearables like Auto Pause (to pause the timer when you stop running temporarily, like at a stoplight) and Auto Scroll (to automatically iterate through the data pages).

One tricky area is laps though. As of this writing (October 13th, 2017), you cannot manually set a lap. Only auto-lap is supported, which is based on a distance you specify (I.e., every one mile). Garmin says that as of the next firmware update, they’ll be adding in manual lap control. This is critical for those of us that want to do a workout and break apart the pieces of the workout using laps (like most people do). These laps of course then show up on any training platform out there, making it easy to analyze workout segments.

[Update: As of October 26th, 2017 – manual lap is now added. You’ll enable it within the individual sport mode settings, and then it’s done mid-workout via a double-tap of the screen.]

Hopefully the manual lap piece makes it out into the wild soon!

In any case, while all this was happening the watch was finding GPS. Typically this only takes a few seconds. At the same time, it’s also acquiring heart rate from your wrist, unless you use a HR strap, in which case it’ll connect to that (either ANT+ or Bluetooth Smart).

Note on that screen you can access structured workouts. Garmin’s included a couple (two) interval workouts on the watch itself, or you can download and create tons of workouts on Garmin Connect or Garmin Connect Mobile. You can also download full training plans (for free) as well here. This is actually probably the biggest change from the Vivoactive HR (its predecessor). [Update: Actually, the Vivoactive 3 should come with 3 workouts each of Strength, Cardio, Run, and Bike. My unit, and some other people’s are missing some or all of them. It sounds like the next firmware update will reinstate all workouts that may be missing for all users.]

Within structured workouts it’ll iterate through each of the workout segments, specifying what your goal is for that portion of the workout and then telling you when to start/stop each chunk. The only challenge with this though is that while it tells you the step guidance for that step as you start that step, you can’t see a count-down timer anywhere after you tap on that screen (i.e. 3 minutes left), nor can you see the workout target.

Back to that GPS pending screen though, finally, we’ll press start. This will start recording on the workout:

At this point you can swipe through the data pages using the touchscreen, or also the side swipe area thingy. I guess I just don’t really get the side swipe thingy. I’ve almost never used it, as I find it too finicky most of the time (overshooting mostly). A simple swipe of the touchscreen works, even in rain or with sweaty fingers.

As a side note, you can access the simplified navigation menu as well as the settings menu by holding down the screen at any time. This also gets you to PR’s, history, stats, and so on:

When you cross through an autolap marker (if you’ve set them up), it’ll notify you of that and display the last lap info. Note that if you go through a tunnel, it’ll simply use the accelerometer to manage pace and distance while running. If cycling, and you have a speed sensor – it’ll use that. Upon exiting the tunnel it’ll resume using GPS.

Which is a good time to mention that, for the most part, all sports have the same basics as running that I’ve discussed here. The one exception is strength workouts, which now have the ability to track specific sets and reps. At the end of each set when you press lap, it’ll ask for how much weight and to confirm how many reps (just in case it miscounted).

All of this is then shown afterwards in Garmin Connect/Garmin Connect Mobile. It actually works fairly well on the whole.

And as far as general GPS and non-GPS workouts go, those too are all available afterwards online. Here’s an example of a recent run (you can use this public Garmin Connect link to look at it in more detail):

Further, any 3rd party services, like Strava and TrainingPeaks, can receive the files the moment they are uploaded.

So what about swimming? The Vivoactive 3 supports pool swimming, but not openwater swimming. Meaning that it doesn’t utilize GPS to track openwater swims, but can do anything in a pool just fine (which uses accelerometers instead). For openwater swims, you’ll have to move up to Garmin’s multisport series watches like the FR935/Fenix5, or slightly older models like FR920XT or FR735XT (Fwiw, the FR735XT is a great deal).

In any event, to start a pool swim you’ll go into the sports menu and locate the pool swimming option. I’d *strongly* recommend you get through the basic swim start menus before you get wet in the pool.

Why’s that? Because the touch screen is less than awesome when wet. And there’s no button combinations that get you there without touching said screen. So it’s best if you simply get yourself to this pending swim start screen:

Along the way, you’ll have selected your pool size, which is important for getting accurate distance. It supports 17M/18Y through 150Y/M.

After that, simply swim. It’ll automatically track your distance and time on the screens. When you finish a set, you’ll tap the physical button once to enter rest mode (the touch screen is thankfully disabled during the swim).

Once in rest mode, it’ll show your last lap distance/time. Note that optical HR is disabled during the swim, and Garmin’s HRM-SWIM strap isn’t compatible with the Vivoactive 3 for loading that HR data.

Then you can tap it again to resume swimming for your next set. All of which is tracked as ‘sets’ within both the watch, but later on Garmin Connect as well:

From an accuracy standpoint, on a recent swim both it and the Apple Watch each missed a single length. Given I had 13 people in my lane at the time, and every few laps somebody would randomly stop in front of me half-way or three-quarters a way across the pool causing all sorts of drama, I think only having one missing length is probably expected and somewhat acceptable.

And again – no openwater swimming natively, though we have seen some 3rd party openwater Connect IQ apps out there in the past, so perhaps those will come over to the Vivoactive 3 in time.

In any case – for sport, overall it’s pretty good. I would much prefer the unit had a few more dedicated buttons for specific lap vs start/stop – but alas, I get the whole minimalistic thing.

Heart Rate Accuracy:

Next up we’ve got heart rate accuracy. This roughly falls into two buckets: 24×7 HR, and workout HR. As is usually the case with most devices these days, I see no tangible issues with 24×7 HR. It works well across both normal daily routines as well as things like sleep. Speaking of which, I talk about RHR values and 24×7 monitoring here and why it’s interesting.

Before we move on to the test results, note that optical HR sensor accuracy is rather varied from individual to individual. Aspects such as skin color, hair density, and position can impact accuracy. Position, and how the band is worn, are *the most important* pieces. A unit with an optical HR sensor should be snug. It doesn’t need to leave marks, but you shouldn’t be able to slide a finger under the band (at least during workouts). You can wear it a tiny bit looser the rest of the day.

Ok, so in my testing, I simply use the watch throughout my normal workouts. Those workouts include a wide variety of intensities and conditions, making them great for accuracy testing. I’ve got steady runs, interval workouts on both bike and running, as well as tempo runs and rides – and even running up and down a mountain.

For each test, I’m wearing additional devices, usually 3-4 in total, which capture data from other sensors. Typically I’d wear a chest strap (usually the HRM-TRI or Wahoo TICKR X), as well as another optical HR sensor watch on the other wrist (many models during this testing period). Note that the numbers you see in the upper right corner are *not* the averages, but rather just the exact point my mouse is sitting over. Note all this data is analyzed using the DCR Analyzer, details here.

Note that while I’ve been using the Vivoactive 3 since mid-August, I’m mostly going to use recent data in this review – since that’s the firmware that it’s currently on.

First up we’ve got a relatively easy and flat run on an island. Very little change in effort here, as it was just a fun run with a friend. Though we did stop and start a little bit to figure out our way. You can look at the DCR Analyzer set here, if you want to zoom around and such (or download the original files).

In this set, there’s the Vivoactive 3’s optical HR sensor, the Apple Watch 3’s optical HR sensor, and a FR935 connected to a TICKR-X HR strap. Overall, all three units track fairly similarly. You do notice though that it takes about 5-6 minutes until the Apple Watch Series 3 acquires a HR. Unfortunately, using the default app there’s no method to know whether the Apple Watch has acquired HR, or whether it’s acquired GPS. You just gotta go and hope.

Looking at those little interval-looking sections above (they were actually brief stoppages), you can see that the Vivoactive 3 quickly tracks those stoppages in the first instance, though is slightly delayed in the second and 3rd instance. The Apple Watch 3 was the least accurate at detecting those in the 1st/3rd instance, and debatable in the 2nd (neither was great there).

The rest of the run however, all three matched without issue.

Let’s switch gears and look at an outdoor bike ride. This one from yesterday covers a wide range of terrain from road to cobbles to off-road in multiple instances. The data here is the Apple Watch Series 3, the Vivoactive 3, and a TICKR-X HR strap.

Looking at this optical HR data, this is actually the best I’ve seen on a bike while riding from any Garmin wearable, ever. Now, that said, it’s also a fairly low bar too. Still, large chunks of it are pretty darn good. For example, let’s look at the first 70 minutes:

You can see some wobbles in the first 10 minutes or so. My guess is this is related to me warming up a bit. The Apple Watch seems to do slightly better in this first 10 minutes, but don’t worry, it has its moments a short bit later. After those 10 minutes, the Vivoactive 3 is great till the 45-minute marker. What was I doing then? Taking some photos while stopped. So, I suppose if accuracy matters to you while taking photos while stopped, then you may want to avoid this.

Still, once riding again, it was good till about the hour marker, when something happened where all three sensors disagreed for a few minutes. I’ve really got no idea why – since there wasn’t anything of note here.

Let’s look at the next hour’s worth of data. Things were pretty good here too, except again when I was taking some selfies on the bike (1:25-1:28):

It’s actually funny, I went back and looked and every time I took photos, the Vivoactive 3 suffered optically. I don’t know why.

For the remainder of the ride it was stop and go getting back into the city, and you can see the Vivoactive 3 struggled a bit when that happened. When I was riding consistently and constantly, it was pretty much spot on.

And that’s the pattern I tend to see with not just Garmin’s sensors, but also Fitbit and Apple too: Stop and go on a bike is for whatever reason, tricky. Once at pace it’s usually fine (even intervals were fine here). But the act of stopping and starting just seems tough. Perhaps it’s flex of the wrists for braking, or something else.

To round things out, here’s an indoor trainer (bicycle) ride. I can’t seem to get the export of the Apple Watch data to come out on this one, though realistically the point of showing this data plot is to illustrate that if you remove the bumps of the road, then basically the HR is perfect indoors:

There’s only one moment for a second that the HR dropped. Without remembering exactly what was going on then, it’s possible I did something that caused that (typing on a keyboard, a phone, who knows). Either way, the rest of the ride was almost perfect, especially those intervals at the end. The only flaw was some slight wobbles after that final interval coming down off the sprint that you see at the end for a short period.

In general though, I’d say the HR accuracy of the Vivoactive 3 is mostly good for running, and a bit mixed for cycling. Which is about the same as I typically find most recent/2017 Garmin optical HR sensors. I prefer lighter watches (FR935/Suunto Spartan Trainer Wrist HR), which in turn helps for optical HR accuracy. Whereas typically heavier watches (i.e. Fenix 5X/Suunto Spartan Sport Wrist HR) bounce a bit more, which reduced HR accuracy in some cases. The Vivoactive 3 is obviously considered a lighter watch, so for some people it’ll probably translate into better accuracy than a heavier watch.

Note: All of the GPS and HR data sets are linked at the beginning of each set. I use the DCR Analyzer to upload and analyze all the data. You can click on the links and analyze the data as you see fit, or even download the original files. Further, if you want to use the DCR Analyzer for your own comparisons, go forth!

GPS Accuracy:

There’s likely no topic that stirs as much discussion and passion as GPS accuracy. A watch could fall apart and give you dire electrical shocks while doing so, but if it shows you on the wrong side of the road? Oh hell no, bring on the fury of the internet!

GPS accuracy can be looked at in a number of different ways, but I prefer to look at it using a number of devices in real-world scenarios across a vast number of activities. I use 2-6 other devices at once, trying to get a clear picture of how a given set of devices handles conditions on a certain day. Conditions include everything from tree/building cover to weather.

Over the years I’ve continued to tweak my GPS testing methodology. For example, I try to not place two units next to each other on my wrists, as that can impact signal. If I do so, I’ll put a thin fabric spacer of about 1”/3cm between them (I didn’t do that on any of my Vivoactive 3 workouts). But often I’ll simply carry other units by the straps, or attach them to the shoulder straps of my CamelBak. Plus, wearing multiple watches on the same wrist is well known to impact optical HR accuracy.

Next, as noted, I use just my daily training routes. Using a single route over and over again isn’t really indicative of real-world conditions, it’s just indicative of one trail. The workouts you see here are just my normal daily workouts.

I’ve had quite a bit of variety of terrain within the time period of Vivoactive 3 testing. Be it from major mountains and trails of the Alps, to the deserts of Las Vegas, to the mountains of Canada and the streets of Paris. It’s been everywhere!

First up we’ll start with something relatively easy – a run around a flat island with very little tree coverage. Sometimes though, the easiest things are the hardest things. Sorta like cooking a perfect egg. Here’s the set data, and the high-level look:

As you can see, the Apple Watch 3 overcooks the egg right from the start. It doesn’t pick up GPS until a few minutes later, due to the way it poorly hands-off from access to the cellular phone to no-phone. So it pretends to have GPS signal when it doesn’t. That’s compounded by you starting to move, which lengthens the amount of GPS time. This despite standing outside about two minutes before we started. In any event, here’s a bit more zoomed in look at that initial section:

What’s notable here is that while the FR935 and Vivoactive were similar, the Vivoactive 3 was cutting some corners. In this case, it inadvertently had ‘Smart Recording’ on (the default, after a firmware update). In theory, it shouldn’t have caused this, but in theory, the Apple Watch also shouldn’t have crapped itself for the first half a mile or so.

After that point though, the units largely agreed, and there wasn’t much of concern beyond that point.

The Vivoactive 3 did well for the remainder of the run, though you see the Apple Watch struggle a bit here and there:

While not terribly important, here’s the total distances from all the units:

Note that the Apple Watch still recorded distance for that first part using the accelerometer, while the Vivoactive meanwhile shorted itself about 100m by the end of the run through those early cuts of corners. Looking at the tracks, I’d say the FR935 was the most accurate to where we actually ran.

Next, we’re going to make it more difficult, with a very short city run. I normally don’t bother including something like this short run in my results (I was testing something else entirely), but decided to because it’s actually a fairly difficult city GPS route, despite only being about 2KM long.

This section has everything from going over and under bridges, to running along skinny streets right next to reasonably tall and very concrete/rock buildings, as well as just general quick and tight turns.

Let’s start off with the first bridge crossing (note: this run had GLONASS off):

You can see here where the FR935 and Vivoactive 3 both prematurely boarded the bridge, and weren’t aligned to it. The Apple Watch was most correct here, but I also had my phone with me – so it would have been leveraging that data instead of the internal GPS of the watch, so do keep that in mind.

Next, you can see that while running under a bridge the FR935 and Apple Watch 3 nailed it without any wanderings upon exiting the other side. Whereas the Vivoactive 3 added a very slight bump here that was incorrect. Yet, a few meters later, the Vivoactive 3 was actually the most correct one when it came to running up and over the next bridge. The Apple Watch 3 and FR935 took the turn just a bit too sharp compared to where I actually ran.

Finally, coming around onto the tip of one of the two islands, this is a super tough spot. Somewhat tall-ish buildings, along with moderately dense trees, it’s trickier than you might expect.

The FR935 nails it, but the Vivoactive 3 and Apple Watch/Phone both have issues. It’s possible this would be an example where had GLONASS been enabled on this run, it probably would have helped quite a bit (it was enabled on the FR935).

GLONASS is generally great in cities, and I almost always use it. Just had been reset after trying a beta firmware, so I didn’t turn it back on yet. It gives units more satellites to work with, which can help when satellite coverage is limited or blocked by buildings. So when you see the Vivoactive 3 likely lose half its satellites, had I enabled GLONASS it probably would have been quite a difference.

You saw this in my earlier runs with the unit in the mountains in the preview post in tough spots that it handled very well with GLONASS enabled.

Looking at a few random/tougher sections, here’s one where I made a small loop around Place de La Concorde and then back across the bridge. I was just avoiding some road closures. What’s notable is that the Vivoactive 3 nails this along with the Edge 1030, but the Apple Watch 3 cuts the corners a bit (despite being paired to the phone). Also, check out the far left side of the route where the Apple Watch is out in the wrong place.

In fact, you can consistently find throughout this ride that the Apple Watch Series 3 is on the wrong side of the road, whereas the Vivoactive 3 is correct (you can zoom around the file here).

It does it dozens of times, cutting straight across traffic circles and more. It’s like it was off beating to its own drum. In sifting through 40 miles of riding, I can only find one instance where the Vivoactive 3 briefly wanders off-course in a wobbly way, here, perhaps 10-meters into some buildings:

I did find 2-3 other instances in the woods where it offset slightly (maybe 2-4m offset the others), but the track was parallel without wobble. But seriously, if you have time – check out the wonkiness of that Apple Watch track. I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like that. It’s like looking at a drunk driver who just cuts all the intersections and keeps on trucking. Almost to the point where I wonder if it’s doing some sort of behind the scenes roadway matching…

For those curious – here’s another bike ride to dig into – very solid GPS accuracy from the Vivoactive 3 as well here. While less opportunities to do so, the Apple Watch also cut some traffic circles there too.

Finally, a super quick diversion to elevation data. The Vivoactive 3 does indeed record barometric elevation data, so I wanted to throw this plot out there with the elevation data for three devices (Apple Watch 3, Garmin FR935, Vivoactive 3) to consider:

What you see is that all three devices differ a bit from the starting elevation, and mostly carry that through to the end. The mountain was Sulphur Mountain that I ran up, and according to Wikipedia, the peak of that where I ran to was 2,256m. If I look at the graphs at the highest point, the figures are:

As such, the Vivoactive 3 was technically the closest (even with Price Is Right rules). I’d say the Apple Watch 3 was the most variable as you can see (whether that’s right or wrong I don’t know). Neither the Apple Watch Series 3 or Vivoactive 3 offers a way to manually adjust the altimeter data, which is set by GPS initially.

So what’s the overall consensus on GPS? It depends. I don’t find it as good as the FR935’s GPS is. But it’s also generally better than the standalone Apple Watch 3 (with no phone on me). I think if I had enabled GLONASS on some recent runs, it’d likely do as well as it did on earlier runs (which was quite well, as seen here – some in my Fitbit Ionic review are the Vivoactive 3). Looking at all the data I have from nearly two months (again, I tried to keep the data in the review the most recent stuff), it seems like turning GLONASS on makes some clear difference and moves it into the ‘happy’ category (for me anyway). The downside is you tend to get a 10-20% hit on battery life.

(Note: All of the charts in these accuracy sections were created using the DCR Analyzer tool. It allows you to compare power meters/trainers, heart rate, cadence, speed/pace, GPS tracks and plenty more. You can use it as well for your own gadget comparisons, more details here.)

Product Comparison:

You’ll find the Vivoactive 3 has been added to the product comparison database, which allows you to compare it to a boatload of other products I’ve reviewed. For the moment, I’ve compared it below to the Fitbit Ionic and the Polar M600 (Android Wear). Though I’ll be shortly adding the Apple Watch Series 3 LTE into the database, so that’s definitely something to compare it against as well. Of course, you can make your own comparisons against any other watches here within the product comparison calculator.

Summary:

Overall, the Vivoactive 3 is a very solid and fitness-focused watch. It’s likely the iteration that many folks have been waiting for in terms of a more stylish unit than the Vivoactive HR was in the last version, and more functional than the super-slim original Vivoactive was a few years back. The addition of Garmin Pay should be useful to some, at least once more banks get added.

From a GPS accuracy standpoint, things generally look pretty good, though as you saw, I’d definitely recommend turning on GLONASS for the GPS pieces. And as usual, I think for the most accurate optical HR while cycling, you’re still going to either want a chest strap or an optical HR sensor worn on your upper arm (i.e. Polar OH-1 or Scosche’s Rhythm+), both of which tend to get better results purely due to placement.

I do also wish there was music included on the unit, since Polar and the M600 is at that same price with music and Android Wear. And the Apple Watch 2 with GPS and music will also flirt with that price. Though in the case of both of those, their batteries are far less than that of the Garmin Vivoactive 3, most notably for GPS-off time (standby mode). With the Apple/Polar options you’re basically charging it every night with moderate use, or every other night with limited use. Whereas with Garmin you’re going 4-6 days in my experience (again, depending on usage).

Still, as far as a mid-range running/workout watch goes – it’s pretty darn solid. The addition of custom workouts to this price point is much welcomed. Overall, it’s a pretty solid all-around unit.

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Hopefully you found this review useful. At the end of the day, I’m an athlete just like you looking for the most detail possible on a new purchase – so my review is written from the standpoint of how I used the device. The reviews generally take a lot of hours to put together, so it’s a fair bit of work (and labor of love). As you probably noticed by looking below, I also take time to answer all the questions posted in the comments – and there’s quite a bit of detail in there as well.

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Thanks for reading! And as always, feel free to post comments or questions in the comments section below, I’ll be happy to try and answer them as quickly as possible.

I have had the VA3 for close to a month and I have found the vibration level just fine (mine is set to “medium”). I can easily feel the lap alert when running and alarms will wake me up. In some cases it is almost too strong. I have read of others thinking it was too weak and I have no idea why their experience is different from mine. Could be hardware, firmware, or user sensitivity. But I haven’t felt it deficient at all.

Thanks for posting this Ray! Question – you didn’t seem to note any concerns/problems when running workouts. For me, when I run a structured workout, it doesn’t show my current step of the workout or something like a countdown timer telling me when that step is going to be over (e.g., if I am doing 5 min repeats or something like that). On my Fenix 3, if you were running a workout, a new screen would automatically show up in addition to your regular screens that was dedicated to the workout – I haven’t seen that on the VA3. Am I just missing it?

For me, when I use a structured workout on it, it shows me the guidance on the page at each step, as well as the duration and target.

What’s missing though, is the count-down timer/target page once that goes away. Ironically, they have a ‘notes’ page that shows up. But that’s totally useless as nothing shows up there. They should simply take the pop-over target/timer screen that shows at each step and plunk that text into that notes screen.

You’re right. No special workout step page just your regular data pages. Also the only thing you see during the recovery step (if you have one) is a black screen with what the step is and a red touchscreen button at the bottom to pause or abandon the workout.

Also the one physical button changes from being start/stop/pause to lap. Which means that if you hit it either by accident or thinking it will pause the current step it will instead advance to the next step of the workout.

My first attempt at using a workout on the VA3 was frustrating as hell.

And god forbid you try and pause the workout. I ended up skipping 3 steps before I realized what I was doing. Then just standing there trying different things to pause it (surely this came up in QA?) But found nothing. In some apps holding down the screen brings up an option to pause the workout but not running.

Just speaking for myself – I still have my Fenix 3 and passed it down to my son who’s running cross country now. I still miss it sometimes. I wanted the 24hr heart rate & stress tracking, really. The debate for me was really between this and the Fenix 5. I also had an Apple watch series 2 for the past year and hated that. Fenix 3hr would probably have been ok but I wanted the newer 2017 HR sensor.

If I could do it over again I may have gotten a Fenix 5. That being said, yeah I like this watch and am cautiously happy with it. I’m hopeful that some of the things I pointed out will be improved in later updates, and can live without the hardware. I’m also saving $200-300 compared to the Fenix. Also, if the new Fr 2xx comes out soon I may wish I waited for that.

We’re sorry to hear your first workout experience was less than stellar. If you update your device to system SW 2.60 and sensor hub 5.10 you will have the option to manually trigger a lap or transition to the next step of a workout with a double-tap.

What’s missing though, is the count-down timer/target page once that goes away. Ironically, they have a ‘notes’ page that shows up. But that’s totally useless as nothing shows up there. They should simply take the pop-over target/timer screen that shows at each step and plunk that text into that notes screen.

Hi Tim, Sorry, just saw this now – I sort of stopped monitoring these comments. I imagine you’ve made your choice by now. 🙂 I’m still not a fan of the VA 3 and wish I’d gotten a Fenix 5 instead. I’m holding out with it now for the next iteration of the Fenix series. It’s ok – and really very good at the price point. But I’d prefer the Fenix and it’d be worth the extra few hundred to me.

I just bought 2 VA3 one for my girlfriend and one for me, i wanted to change my tomtom spark but honestly I’m really disapointed. you cant create a structured wourkout in the watch so you need to create them in advance in the app or in garmin connect. so if i meet with friends and we decide to do 6×800 insteand of 3×400 i’m screwed.

and the implementation is less than stellar there is no dedicated page to know in what step of the workout you are or what is the goal.

its sad to see that my 2014 tomtom has all of this nailed and a 2017 new watch from the top brand doesn’t

Like many, I’d been waiting on a review. This seemed, from the outside, for a nice ‘lite’ triathlon watch/activity tracker/smart watch. I’m primarily a cyclist and this could be 1 device for all things, combine activities into one ecosystem, without ponying up tons of cash.

How is this as far as cycling support? I know it doesnt do power meters natively, so using this to track all workouts may not work. I really want one ecosystem that can combine all the activities I do (runs, rides with my powermeter, a fairly long commute on a bike share, rather long walks pushing a stroller when the kid just wont nap) and track everything all in one place. Does garmin play nicely combining activities between an edge unit and this?

Lots of questions, and I’m sure many will be answered in a comparison piece that is coming, and the annual recommendation piece.

Perfect – and, yes, that’s my experience as well. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with that “notes” screen. That (and the arbitrary “all screens need to match”) has been my only annoyance with this watch in the month I’ve had it. Thanks again!

So wish this came with more buttons and no touch screen. I run in the cold and have to wear a jacket. The jacket sleeve brushes against my original Vivoactive and starts randomly toggling options. I once had my data fields messed up due to the touch screen being sensitive to the sweaty jacket sleeve.

When I can afford and justify a replacement I’ll be going for a non-touch screen device.

I actually had this happen for the very first time on Friday evening (in almost 4 months of runs with it). Totally random, just froze. Temps was pretty close to 32*F off the top of my head, though I doubt that had much to do with it.

Do you think this is something that could simply be fixed with software updates or is this likely a hardware issue? There are a few issues with this since November on the forums but absolutely no response from Garmin. I’m considering replacing the watch.

My wife has this watch and it just happened to her in a NYE marathon. Touchscreen began cycling constantly and wouldn’t work at all mid race. She was able to stop the activity since it works off of a physical button, but couldn’t save it. I tried warming it up inside to save the data, but it died soon after the race (6hrs of active GPS). When I plugged it in it went right back to the paused/stopped activity screen and the touchscreen worked. I was able to save the activity as if nothing happened. Looks like Garmin has a major problem on their hands here.

Hi, I haven’t read all of the article above, I’ll already bough it and been wearing 24/7 since Oct 6, only hiccups I had was battery life ( lasted 24hrs the first day.. yaikes!!) now it gives about 4 days ( that’s more acceptable) the other one was the gesture, I had it to activity only and it worked the first 3 days then it didn’t so I turned off, I tried again last night and it seems to be ok again ( wheew) Idon’t care for the Garmin Pay or any other Pay out there so if it works or not it won’t matter to me. Music storage? Nah I do like and want to take my phone with me to all of my runs and bike rides and gym days ( it gives me a false sense of security and I like it ) i do have a a question it’s probably a dumb one but still hope I can get an answer. On the VA3 settings there’s an option under USB and the options are either Garmin or Mass storage, what does that mean? What’s the difference? I know it had to do about how it behaves when connected to PC, but why the option? I never seen this on any of my running/activity trackers before and I own 5 of them 2 Polar and 3 Garmin. Thanks. P.S: Am liking it so much that I even bought a new band for my running events ( Its more informal sporty dress)

Garmin Vs Mass Storage mode will probably affect whether or not the watch continues to record an activity when you put it on the charging adapter. When set to Garmin mode it will continue to record instead of going into a USB mode.

Mass Storage Mode: This is how every other Garmin (without this option) works.

When you plug in a USB cable, if the other end is a computer, your activity stops, the charging screen appears, your watch’s “internal file system” is mounted on the PC/Mac (“mass storage”) and you can’t do anything with your watch until you disconnect the cable.

If the other end is a plain charger, your activity keeps going. You don’t get a charging screen; you can do anything you want with your watch.

If you plug your watch into a computer or something that can transfer data, then your watch is unusable, no questions asked.

Garmin Mode = when you plug in a cable, if the other end is a PC, you get a choice: Mass Storage (Yes/No). If you answer no, the watch acts just like you plugged it into a “dumb” charger. If you answer yes, it’s just like above (you can’t use your watch for anything else.

If the other end is dumb charger, then it’s the same as above.

—

“Garmin mode” is probably here to account for fancy chargers that can also transfer data, in case you want to keep using your watch normally when you plug in.

Will, thank you for your explanation, yeah I think am going to leave it like it came: USB Mass Storage. I guess it doesn’t really matter since whenever I connect it to my mac ( usually once a week) it’s because i want to make sure i get the lastest upgrades and i just let it do it’s thing. When it needs to be charged I usually use a dumb walll charger.

Thanks for the review! I’ve been wearing the slate version of the Vivoactive 3 since a couple of days. It’s my first smartwatch, so I don’t have a lot to compare it to. So far, I mostly like it. I’ve experienced some strange crashes for no apparent reason and the stair-climbed thing is way off.

Quick question though. Pressing the crown feels somewhat flimsy. It feels like it has a half press (which doesn’t do anything) and a full press. I guess it’s more or less comparable to the shutter button on a DSLR camera, where the half press is for focus and the full press is for actually taking a photo.

Hmm, no half-step press on mine. Seems normal. I know the sensation you’re referring to though, and have seen it on other watches. In almost all cases it was just for the first few days, and usually pressing it a bunch fixed it. Kinda like breaking in a pair of sneakers.

Thanks for posting. I’m very tempted by this watch for swimming support and 24×7 HR, but I currently use a FR620 with the HRM-run strap and want to keep the running dynamics. Does this watch record this data with that strap?

Or should I wait for, ahem, other Garmin products based on this platform that may be coming down the track shortly?!

It’s just because I was stupid and forget to set the flag on that product ID in the database. Fixed.

Essentially, Garmin as a manufacturer requires that CT use the VIP program to get points back instead. You still get 10% of the purchase price back in points, which you can use immediately. Details here: link to dcrainmaker.com I appreciate the support!

Just so I understand I earn the points for the order but it can’t be used for this order. I need to use those points for my next order? I placed the order and it added your VIP to the cart and showed points earned but was still charging my card full amount

Interesting that the Apple and Fitbit have the rectangular faces that Garmin seems to have eliminated after the 920xt. I’m not in the market right now, so these choices are of no real interest to me. But I do find that the rectangular face communicates data better for me – although the 920xt is more square and the Apple and Fitbit are rectangular, so, narrower. I don’t know how I’d like that wrt the 920xt. Just an observation.

I noticed that, too. I have the VAHR and if you look at the photos above of, for instance, the HR widget it does not display as much info, the VAHR displays resting HR, min and max and a title. The new widget, however, seems to use different shade in the graph and the min and max on the graph itself, so cleaner display but not as much info. I think I prefer the square (or rectangle) for data, but the round looks much better as a watch and the crisper, brighter, more colorful display is an improvement. I bought my VAHR for $169, however, on one of the discount days last Christmas, and I doubt we’ll see anything like that with the new version.

Because you wrote that fitbit ionic doesnt save that data? I am an indoor cycler and my main concern is to save hr data to control my workouts. How would you compare in that matter 735xt, aw3 and vivoactive3?

Yeah, that’s long been a bug on the Fitbit platform. But just to be super clear: The Ionic does save the data, it just doesn’t allow you to export non-GPS HR data. It’s empty. They know of the bug, but don’t really have a valid excuse or timeline for when they’ll fix it.

The Apple thing wasn’t entirely Apple’s fault. It was a 3rd party app to get the data out. Though, you could argue it was Apple’s fault since they don’t include any method of doing that natively.

Either way, all Garmin devices (ever) properly record indoor data to the .FIT (or in older cases, .TCX) file, which is easy to read in any 3rd party app.

Not asking me but throwing my opinion out anyway. 🙂 I tried it the first couple days on both sides thinking I might like it better on one side or the other – but ended up turning it off entirely. It’s too finicky and the touchscreen works perfectly fine.

I talked a bit about it in the review. Agree with Todd, it’s too finicky and I rarely use it. Sorta like Apple Maps, I find every-time I circle back and try and use it I come away mystified and disappointed.

Todd how did you turned off the touch sensitive swipe area? On the Vivoactive 3 ? I looked everywhere on settings and didn’t see anything. The only thing that I have is under system settings/ side swipe: default or inverted. Currently is on default, I tried inverted just to see what was that for but didn’t see any changes. But am sure I didn’t see any options to turn it off.

Thanks for the review. I have used the Garmin Swim until it lost its water resistance after battery replacement. Now looking for a new model. I am very bad at lap counting so my question is; does Vivoactive 3 show the distance while swimming so I can check during my turns. I am also curious about the new Samsun Gearfit2 pro, since it comes more like a swim oriented watch. Did they solve the previous problems? Thanks doa

Thanks Ray, very much thinking about purchasing this…..but am also closely watching the Samsung Gear Sport. As an Android user and a Samsung one at that, this could be a very good sports watch. Full 5ATM for swimming, Offline Spotify, great display etc. Ok there are some negatives too, such as lack of a strava app on the Tizen OS. Any chance you will be reviewing this upon its release next week?

I was looking into the Samsung Gear Sport too, but will not get it as it will not connect to external HR monitors (Polar H10…). I signed up as a developer and was told it will not support any external HR monitors 🙁 Major bummer and thus it is no longer an option.

Tim, I use the app Sync my Tracks to get my workout data to different ecosystem. You can for instance sync your data from Samsung Health to Strava. Works great. Good thing also if you change ecosystem and want to have your workout history with you the new one.

For some of the Garmin Pay stuff to work I’m on the absolute latest beta build, though I don’t remember any difference between those sleep screens and the ones from a few weeks ago using the normal beta for Connect on iOS.

I have seen that the iOS beta trigger sometimes falls off the wagon – any chance it did that?

Thanks Ray. I have called Garmin with these issues but with not too much luck so far. The backlight, as for others turns on even though I only have it activated during sports. Also, I have created some custom strength workouts and downloaded them to my watch. On the desktop, I have set them to lbs. But, for some reason, on my watch they should up as KG. I don’t know if anyone else here has had that issue.

One thing I find annoying with the sleep tracking, is that the total “sleep period” includes “awake time”. Ray’s example above is a prime example. The total sleep time was 7 hours, but he was only in a light sleep for circa 4 hours and awake for the rest of the time. The total sleep time should be recorded as 4 hours and not 7 imho.

I also note that if I’m lying quietly in bed after waking up randomly in the night, it doesn’t record that period as being awake.

My devices are the FR235 and the Vivosmart 3, not the Vivoactive 3 for what it’s worth.

I agree. I have trouble sleeping. I’m awake most nights for 1-2 hours but acccording Garmin I sleep 8+ hours even if I don’t even wear my watch while sleeping! I’ve sent multiple e-mails to Garmin asking them to remove sleep tracking as an option. Should not be too difficult. If you don’t wear the device it does not register heartrate.

Hi Ray: “put the backlight at about 10-20%, and then to turn off gesture activation, except in workouts.”

Is this really a thing now? When gesture activated backlight came out on the Fenix 3 about 2 years ago I pestered and pestered the beta team to put in an option to have this restricted to during an activity, as having it come on at night (no sleep tracking otherwise), in the cinema, etc was just too much of a pain in the behind to be worth it, and made the feature a bit of a waste of time. Nothing ever came of that, much to my disappointment. If they are now doing it, will this be a thing in the fenix line also going forwards? I’m probably going to be waiting a couple of years for Fenix 6 and proper Galileo coverage before replacing this watch unless it dies in the meantime, but it would be nice to know that’s waiting for me in the future!

Ray, Have you ever considered testing barometric elevation accuracy in the same way you do with GPS? I run on a pancake-flat course frequently, but looking at the elevation chart from my run you would think I was running a trail in the hills. Seems it gets thrown off by every gust of wind or slight change in pressure. I would be curious how different watches stack up in the baro accuracy department.

Mine struggles terribly with elevation data. No matter how many times I calibrate it, I gradually sink about 100 feet during the day, and it thinks I start at 450′ instead of 550′ on every run. THEN I sink another 60′ during the run and end up at a different elevation than I started, apparently I am in an underground cavern. Or maybe I was levitating at the start. You would think it could at least correct itself when it knows you are at the same position as you were earlier! Throughout the run, the elevation is not at all related to the actual profile. There is no way to disable the barometer or to tell it to automatically correct to the known elevations from maps, it defaults to using the terrible barometer data. What you can do is go into the web based Connect (not phone app) after the fact and change it to correct the data. Which is fine except it has already sent the garbage data to Strava and other apps which also have to be individually told to correct the junk. So frustrating.

So I called. Was told it is a known issue with an open ticket and will be fixed in an update very soon. uh huh. What isn’t clear is if the update will fix the data, or if it will allow us to default to readily available correct data. She added me to the ticket so I will get an email update. I suggest anyone with elevation issues call and get added to the ticket so Garmin knows how widespread the issue is.

That would be a bummer. I believe the pace on my VAHR is right on the money and very responsive (within a second or so, if I stop or start). It even stays accurate when I am running in the woods, even though it must occasionally lose the GPS fix, so it seems to keep accurate with the accelerometer. This is in contrast to the Apple Watch 3 I just got, where pace is not as accurate or responsive. It would be great if Ray could include a section on pace which he has done for some reviews. I think it is much more important for running then GPS accuracy – I don’t really care if it records the right side of the street as long as it doesn’t mess up the Strava segments 😉 It is also a big differentiator between watches and very important for training plans and alerts, I would think.

I disagree it’s more important than gps accuracy because it’s entirely tied to gps accuracy. But current pace will never be accurate unless you use a footpod. I don’t understand why people don’t understand the limitations of gps. Avg pace or lap pace are much much better measures.

Moreover for the vast majority of people absolutely accuracy just isn’t necessary

Im curious how you know if the current pace is accurate? Do you have high end equipment or do you have a presmeasured rout.

I occasionally run on a 400m outdoor track as well as routes measured on maps. I did not mean overall GPS accuracy, simply the accuracy that Ray is showing in his review, which is the accuracy of the GPS route. A good deal more goes into determining pace than the accuracy of the route. The GPS data is “smoothed” and uses cadence and the accelerometer data as well when good GPS data is not available, like going through a tunnel or in heavy trees. The algorithms used effects the current pace value. BTW, your footpad data is only as good as the consistency of your cadence and the calibration. This is not very good for trail running. A watch which can consistently calibrate your step length might be more accurate in many circumstances. My new Apple watch seems to be giving me a consistently faster pace (current as well as average or lap) than my VAHR because of a greater distance. This is much worse when running in the woods. I believe this is because of a poor algorithm for smoothing the GPS data or just sampling errors. The actual map, however looks almost identical. Absolute accuracy isn’t necessary, but my Apple Watch has me often running at a 7:00 min pace in the woods, which I am simply not doing.

I’m curious why folks state that GPS will never be accurate for pacing?

There’s so much evidence that shows that’s simply not true. There is plenty of evidence of people having issues with any unit you want to pick from the last 10-12 years, but there’s just as many people that don’t have issues with GPS pacing.

Also, many watches these days actually merge WDR (wrist based pacing) with GPS pacing to give you smoother pacing on the watch. Suunto has a fancy term for it: FusedSpeed. But most companies do the same thing.

Come on Ray. How would you even measure if it’s accurate or not. You don’t even measure GPS on certified courses. You just look for similarities across devices not accuracy to a known distance. I’d love to see more reviews do this but I recognize its not necessary.

Even within a given distance there are variations amongst the individuals that vary the pace from moments to moment. Not to mention the limitations of commercial gps.

I suspect people are just looking for “good enough” and calling that accurate.

It’s super easy to measure accuracy of GPS while pacing if you have a straight and well marked route such that you can follow the exact line of the roller. I marked one of those such routes in DC when I lived there.

The problem is footpods are not the solution people think they are. There’s plenty of cases where they don’t work as well as folks think, especially when you shift paces. Sure, on the whole they tend to work well, but distance is often off between different models of supposedly perfect footpods, which certainly questions the pacing that comes from it.

Bought this last week and enjoying first “smart watch” ok. My main source of doubt now is I saw reference to 735XT which somehow I was unaware of. Would like open water swim and that seems to be similar otherwise

Has the 735XT has been upgraded via software to have most of same functionality as VA3 like phone integration and sleep tracking (minus any requiring newer hardware)?

Trying to see VA3 advantages (yes, $100 cheaper but that’s much less than gap to Fenix line I’ve been lusting for)

The 735 had smart features, activity and sleep tracking from the beginning so those things are all there.

I’ve had the Vivoactive 3 for several weeks and used a 735 24/7 most of this year and would say that which is better is all a matter of what your needs are. Having both I use the VA3 for all day tracking and non-running/biking excersize and the 735 for my “real” training.

As a day-to-day watch and activity tracker the VA3 is better. Looks are an individual thing but for me the VA3 is much better looking at a base level and even though it’s not a gorgeous device it at least doesn’t scream “running watch” at the office. The improved always on HR features are definitely better since it won’t miss some things by shutting off for extended periods to save battery.

If open water swimming and swim drills are must haves rather than want to haves then the 735 is the least expensive way to go currently. In the Garmin line at least. And you’ll still get most of the other things.

Just as a minor point of clarification. The FR735 does have 24x7HR, it’s just that it has it at a much reduced rate (in theory every few minutes, but I see it go upwards of a few hours). The Vivoactive 3 has it at every second.

The data field limitations are interesting, and probably a deal breaker for me. Both the “all pages have the same number of fields” and the field limitations for top and bottom. Especially when you start including CIQ fields, many of them work best as a single field for the entire screen. So now you need to set all pages to a single field.

Speaking of CIQ fields, can you even select them for the top and bottom? I’m also guessing you are limited to a total of 2 CIQ for an activity? Making the above limitations even worse.

Have you spoken to Garmin about these limitations? Any chance they will reconsider?

The idea behind wrist-based payments is to make payments easier than they are now. Easier than pulling out a wallet and pulling out a CC. Easier than pulling out the phone and fingerprint authenticating. If it is not easier, the whole raison d’etre disappears, especially if the watch requires a phone to be present.

Putting in a pin every time when making a payment is not easier. Garmin Pay as implemented will not be used.

I actually don’t think the goal is to always to make it easier then pulling out a wallet.

I think the very specific scenario they’re going for here is: Go for a run/ride/whatever, stop at end of it at a cafe/etc, grab a drink, then walk/run/whatever home. Or perhaps it’s one I’ve done many times: Go for a one-way run across town, use Metro/etc to get home.

Note: No watch I know of requires the phone to be present. All store it locally on the device.

I agree that purchases “on the run” is very convenient. Even in regular civilian use, it’s much easier than pulling out the wallet and quite reliable (at least in Canada with Apple Watch). Another use case I’ve found is using the phone to present a rewards card bar code, and then use the watch for payment, rather than switch cards on the Wallet app.

Come on, he’s not saying it’s too much work, he’s simply comparing the effort of two ways to do the same thing. Something, “as a society”, we have been doing since at least the beginning of the industrial revolution.

Garmin circled back and says it should only be requiring it once 24 hours. At present, that’s definitely not the case – something I know all-too well from having to shoot video of the darn thing standing at McDonalds and re-entering the pin each and every attempt…

Ray, do you have any pictures of the smart notifications from the VA3? I am currently debating between a VA3 or Apple Watch 3. I currently wear a Vivoactive HR (VAHR) and OG Apple Watch daily (and yes, I look like a damn fool wearing both, and get asked why at least once a month).

I have Apple Pay on my phone, and don’t see an advantage to having it on my watch. I love the data, battery life, GPS, and HR accuracy on the VAHR. I love siri dictation and the notifications on the Apple Watch – I find the smaller text on the display much easier to read more/most of a message without scrolling. I usually run with my phone, so having either untethered for music isn’t really a concern at the moment.

I think notification text that was smaller (or scalable) on the VA3 it might push me firmly toward a purchase there (or the 735 you mentioned, I’m mostly just a runner so maybe it’s overkill.) but I’ll wait for the apple watch 3 review either way.

To answer to your 2. question: No, notification handling is much poorer od FX5! Please just take a look at the Vivoactive 3 manual on that matter. In Vivoactive you can actually reply to message or dismiss a phone call with a choice of predefined (and customizable!) messages whilst in F5X you can just dismiss (!!!). WTF!? F5X is the flagship product and this is not a hardware issue ! I really expect to see this feature very soon in F5X firmware update !

@Koen to answer your first question. the screen is pretty much the same resolution as the fenix. but the target of “mass market watches” puts the VA3 up against very many devices with vastly superior screens. admittedly that’s at least half the reason why the battery lives are then lower on those other devices

I’m a tall skinny guy with long skinny monkey arms so I like smaller watches too. I have the 235, 735, and VA3 and they’re all quite similar in diameter, the 935 is a bit larger.

The biggest difference between the 3 Garmin watches I have is how much they sit up off the wrist. The Forerunners have a thicker case and also have the HR sensor nub on the back. The VA3 had the new sensor which doesn’t have a nub and the case is noticeably thinner and the watch stands very low off the arm.

The drawback to that is that it makes the “Side Swipe” feature almost useless because it gets contacted accidentally when the skin gets bunched up when you flex your wrist.

I still love my original Vivoactive. Lightweight (38g), thin, discrete (black) and notifications are also discrete. It just looks so dorky square that I’ll have to upgrade some day. I can charge my original Vivoactive while it’s on my arm – great for long hikes and back country skiiing. The Vivoactive 3 is a great style improvement over the unstylish Vivoactive 2 and the original Vivoactive. I wish the new version was a bit thinner and lighter. And also allow for 6 fields per page when running. I know there’s IQ data fields that can show more data on the same page, but I tend to find IQ apps and data fields unreliable long term.

I use the Single Field CIQ data field on VAHR which gives you 5 fields as well as Time of Day, battery and GPS status. I used it also on my Vivoative ever since they allowed 1 data field per page. I have never had a problem with it, some CIQ apps or data fields are finicky, but not that one.

Is there any ConnectIQ app by which I could download HRM data generated during swimming sessions from “HRM-Swim” or “TickrX” (or from any Ant+ HR belt) onto “Vivoactive 3” ? Obviously I would do it after a swimming workout done (i.e. both gadgets are out of water).

@Nico, I do not think that is true for most MEMS barometers, although true for mercury based barometers. I may be wrong, but I believe they are just calibrated against a known altitude from GPS) at current conditions. If you know otherwise, I would be interested. Having a thermometer on your watch is certainly useful, however. If you want a completely accurate temperature, just take it of you wrist for a short while. Hikers who are not interested in Heart Rate often wear it on their pack. Garmin created the Tempe sensor so you could get accurate readings at any time (even outdoors, when you are inside).

Is the touchscreen like that on the FR620/630, where you need the watch on your wrist to work? (I think you need a conduction path from the back of the watch through to your finger touching the screen)

Does the touchscreen work if you (say) mount the watch on your bike (with one of those rubber mounts). If not, it that perhaps the reason for the side-swipe area thing?

Seams a great product, yet i doesn´t have a feature that i like the most: mp3 music like the Tomtom Spark. When will the competition go after this? Is there any decent sport watch capable of playing music like the spark?

Jose. Music during workout is important for me and thats why I got my first Spark. Today you actually got some other watches that focus on sport/fitness and got the music onboard.

You got the Apple Watch 3 with Apple Music, Fitbit Iconic with Pandora if you are in US otherwise its mp3, LG Sport and Polar M600 with Google Play Music. You also got Samsung Gear 3 and Gear Sport with Spotify onboard including offline feature If you are a Premium subscriber.

Must of us stream music today and with Apple Music, Google Play Music and Spotify you got a huge amount of music to create playlist during workout and not limited to mp3 as you are with Spark.

I guess one problem that Garmin has with music onboard is that they dont have any streaming service to use. Then you have to use mp3 and thats not the way many of us lissen to music nowadays.

Pretty underwhelmed by this sadly. The lack of manual laps and the restriction on data fields seem completely crazy, but will hopefully get sorted by firmware upgrades. The pointless touch interface on the side and screen sensitivity issues seem to reflect rather botched thinking. All I wanted was a less weird looking version of VA HR, whereas Garmin appear to have taken 2 steps forward and 3 back. So I’ll be hanging onto my original VA (and hard earned cash!) for the foreseeable future, which is still a great watch.

they’ve added manual laps as per the manual 😉 I sort of like the side swipe thing. although when you press and hold the button and the circular icon menu comes up that’s the one place I would have expected the side swipe thing to work on and rotate it…even if just for fun 2 forwards and 3 back…maybe. but then you have to ask what steps the competition have taken…….

Ok, what am I missing. I show no workouts on the watch itself, it does say training calendar and when I select that it tells me to download my calendar. When I get to the calendar itself on connect it shows only the workouts I’ve done in the past. I also cannot find any download links. Thanks.

As a current VA HR owner I would only consider buying this if: 1. The manual laps option is added and works well (in all circumstances). 2. The current restriction on the number of data field per page is removed (e.g. I want to have 1 (connect IQ) field on page 1 and 4 fields on page 2 and 3. 3. The user interface for workouts is improved (countdown timer added, being able to pauze workouts).

Hi Ray, Can you clarify what you consider a “fitness-focused watch” vs. “sports-focused watch”. From my perspective, the Vivoactive 3 watch has multi-sport capability and tracking, so I would consider it a “sports-focused watch”. But in your summary you’ve been clear to describe it as “fitness-focused”…I’m just wondering what attributes you use to draw a distinction between “a sports watch” vs. “a fitness watch”.

I’d generally draw the fuzzy line at a watch that has things allowing aspects like custom workouts, customizing intervals (warm-up/work/recovery/rest), and connecting to sensors (HR, footpod, maybe cycling) as a more sport-focused unit.

Whereas something lacking those but still has other features that are more rounded in fitness (be it apps or daily tracking) would fall under my camp as a fitness-focused unit that’s lacking in sports.

Of course, then you get more hardcore sport things like multi-sport mode, power meter support, advanced recovery metrics, etc… but that’s really a different category.

I do get that there’s a fuzzy line between ‘fitness’ and ‘sport’. But I think most people would look at the Vivoactive 3 and Fitbit Ionic and see pretty easily which side of the fence each is on.

I am a runner and sometimes do trail run. I´m in doubt between the Fenix 3 HR and VA3. I think Fenix 3 is more complete but VA3 is more modern. The 935 and Fenix 5 are too expensive for me. Can you help me?

Hi Oscar, You could look at something like the fr 235, fr 630 or fr 735 xt. These will give you a virtual pacer, audio prompts (definitely on the fr235 not sure if on 630 or 735xt). The 630 and 725 will give you running dynamics when paired with a hr strap. They may be better options. The fenix 3 had running dynamics and more features but I think you would be better off with a different watch.

Ray, Polar M600 has been a proper indoor swim tracker since updating to Android Wear 2.0. I have been swimming with it for approximately 6 months and I have had only one session which went wonky–all others have been spot on. Heart rate works (not perfect, but okay), and tracks distance, time (including rest time), pace, and SWOLF. You should check it out and update your Polar M600 review. Thanks.

Thanks for the review! I always appreciate your attention to the small details that most other reviewers miss.

I previously had a Forerunner 235, and sold it when I got an Apple Watch Series 2 earlier this year. After a few months, it’s clear that I preferred the Garmin to the Apple Watch (for many reasons).

I’m thinking about getting the VA3, but I’m curious whether you have any thoughts on whether Garmin will release a 245 and/or 645 this year. It seems like the Forerunner 200-series and Vivoactive series are converging (in both price and feature set), but it seems like there’s room for a 645 at around the $400 price point (potentially with more physical buttons, running dynamics, and possibly music storage as the distinguishing features). Not sure that would be enough to push me over the top, but I’m sure it would be for some people.

I know that some blogs have been posting pictures of the alleged 645, but not sure how likely this is considering how close to the holiday season we already are.

Garmin has, in the past, been able to make an out-of-the blue announcement and then have watches ready at retail in less than 4 weeks, sometimes in as little as 2 weeks. If the leaked images are to be believed, Garmin could wait until the last Monday in October to announce, and STILL have units ready to be bought at the NYC Marathon Expo and then later at retailers in *PLENTY* of time for Black Friday. So while I have nothing to go off of other than rumors, do NOT let timing be the reason you doubt the rumors.

Just wondering if seeing the third iteration of this watch coming out with the same rough and ready UI, no manual laps, a side swipe function that literally no one seems to prefer, an odd release schedule yet again (EU specifically) make you raise your eyebrows a little bit?

just thinking, for manual laps workaround, since physical button in advanced workout mode works like ‘go to next step’, one can create kind of dummy structured workout with several (more or less one can predict how many manual laps she/he will need for the workout) steps, all with open duration (‘until lap button press’). This way You can achieve manual laps… at least as workaround until this comes natively in fw update…

I’m really disappointed that this watch support lap swimming but does not have a drill mode for it. I had such high hopes for this watch. The 902XT is to large for me to wear during the day and I was hoping for a day watch that could work for non bike/run workouts (swimming, lifting, etc.). I like the looks of this watch but no drill mode is kind of a deal breaker.

I have the classic VA and had high hopes for VA3 (I wanted to get rid of the chest hrm strap and 2nd gen VA was not “there” for me). However, I have to say I’m pretty much underwhelmed and cannot justify getting rid of my trusty VA and forking over $250 for the VA3.

What’s also weird is there are a couple advantages to the old VA over the VA3 — ie, I can set screens 1/2/3 to have different number of data fields on original VA and it’s thinner (lighter?) for everyday use. Having the HR as a single data field (in large numbers) is great for older eyes.

I do wonder how many who were looking to upgrade from the VA or VAHR feel the same. I have the VAHR, and really wanted to like this watch enough to justify the upgrade cost but I just don’t think I can.

Honestly, I’d be on board if they just opened up Garmin Pay to be a reloadable card – like the Starbucks app – if getting banks on board is such a problem. Let me load $10-$15 and then be able to buy water/train ticket without having my phone or wallet on me? That’s cool. I don’t care if it’s directly connected to my bank. Really, might even be better that way (less potential loss if something goes awry).

Actually… “The Slate model has an extra PVD (physical vapor deposition) coating on the bezel that will be more scratch resistant. This is more expensive to manufacture, hence the bump in price. I hope this is helpful.”

Thank you for this review. I received mine last night from Clever Training and took it on a bike ride this morning. I have two questions that I have yet to see answered. 1. I have a garmin edge 810 and ran that and the watch at the same time today and the watch was very close to the 810 in tracking the ride. However, I really don’t need to run them both at the same time. So what works best, broadcasting the HR to the 810 (says reduces battery life – more than gps?) just leave the watch in auto mode for the HR tracking OR start a ride on the watch w/o gps? 2. MUSIC – can I regulate the volume while I am doing a workout (Indoor Cycling or running) or do I have to exit or pause the workout to manage volume? Details on how to do that please. Thank you, love your reviews and so far like this watch a whole lot better than my Apple Watch. BTW, small wrists and I still liked he style – just ordere two watch bands.

Thanks Ray. What I did on my 40 ride today is select the broadcast mode to my garmin 810 and then turned off the gps. It worked very well and I got the best of both worlds, had an 89% battery level on the watch and still got all my data. It would be great if Garmin actually had these two units talk to each other and blend the ride info, but for now I am pretty happy. I am not using the side swipe hardly at all and find the screens are very easy to use and responsive even with sweaty hands. Overall VERY satisfied with this watch. Would love to see the Garmin Pay activated and also some reply capabilities on text, but then I do have an iPhone. Don’t miss my Apple Watch at all.

Hey Ray, my VA3 keeps crashing when broadcasting HR to Zwift (Windows version). Garmin told me it is only designed to broadcast to other Garmin devices (such as the Edge series). Does that even make sense? From my understanding ANT+ is just a wireless protocol. The sending devices broadcasts a signal and the receiving device grabs it out of the air. I’m not sure how one could set that up to only send data to a Garmin branded device, especially since I am using a Garmin ANT+ dongle. And it does work for a few minutes, then the HR reading freezes up at the last known number and never changes again. And sometimes the watch crashes too. Does any of that pass the proverbial “smell test?”

Thanks for a great review! I’m having to choose between the Vivoactive3 and the Fenix 5s… If it weren’t for the costs it would be an easy choice, but €599….? Still, if the F5s really is the better choice for me, I’d seriously consider it. I love the fact that both combine the daily activity tracking with running and bike riding in one (really nicelooking) watch. I love the 24×7 hr and the fact that I can monitor my resting heart rate far more easily than strapping on the hr strap every day. I currently have the FR220, which works fine for me, but I’m excited about the VO2 max option both watches seem to have. I’m slightly concerned about the limited options in choosing data fields in the VA3. I’m pretty used to my lap screen, with lap pace, lap timer and lap distance (no hr, beause the FR 220 only holds 3 fields in one screen). Is that something they’ll update eventually, or is it something you’ll just have to live with in the VA3? I’m also not liking the fact that you can’t manually set laps. I think I read in your review that Garmin will change that in a new firmware release? As I said, what’s important to me is that I can combine my sports activities (run, bike, bootcamp) with a daily activity tracker. Can you (or anyone else?) help me in choosing between these two watches? Thanks!

I think that there are no choice between F5; better alternative to be considered for alternative to VA3 is FR935. Both of VA3 and FR935 are plastic constructions and weights are far less than F5. It is weight, size and slim smooth profile against your wrist that us very important to fitness tracking purposes if you are going to wear the unit 24/7.

I think that in regard those aspects order will be VA3, FR935 and F5 is least comfortable to be wear all the time. I feel that VA3 might just the one device to rule the all (very good fitness with moderate sports tracking) needs, if you choose F5 then you might need to add Vivosmart 3 for 24/7 tracking for your shopping list; if comfort to wear is your thing. For me, VA3 just feels “nothing”, it’s small, light and slim just enough to forgot even wearing one.

According to the manual Move IQ is supposed to start timed activities for running and walking after a certain amount of time. Is there anyone who got this working? Activity detection via Move Iq works fine on my device, but all activities only show up in the timeline as move iq activities. Of course, checked the box in Garmin connect (the “fitness tracker” part) to start timed activities for running and and walking after 1 resp. 5 minutes, but no matter how long I walk or run, I get only move iq events (which don’t appear in the activity list). Am I missing something?

I haven’t even been able to figure out how to see if it’s actually starting a timed activity like I told it to. I went for a walk just to see, and nothing ever happened on the watch and I never saw it in the app under activities either. I’m baffled on that as well.

I don’t know if they change anything in this watch, but that is exactly how it works in VA HR. It seems pretty much useless to me although it was one of the reasons I chose VA HR, because I thought it would start activities automatically when I forget to…but nope, it just records them as Move IQ event with start time and duration and that’s it. And it only shows in a calendar view. In my Garmin connect app (android) it says “these events help you see what you’ve done throughout the day, but do not show up in your activities list, snapshots, or news feed. For more details and accuracy, record an activity by using the start/stop timer on your device”…

I found only one good thing from that feature is that if you forgot to stop an activity manually, then you can compare times with Move IQ and adjust saved activity.

Hello, I’ve had the VA3 for about a week. Love it! But I’ve noticed there are no pre-loaded workouts, as there supposedly should be. Has anyone else noticed that? (When I open Run, and touch Workouts, there are no pre-loaded workouts, just “training calendar” that says I have to download a calendar.)

I’m beyond on curious whether BMR is utilizing 24/7 heart rate to provide metrics of resting calories. Based on my weight and age, Garmin is telling me that I burn 1983 calories for staying alive. This data is based on generic formula, not monitoring my heart rate on my legacy Vivofit. Could I assume that Vivofit 3 does utilize 24/7 heart rate to provide accurate metrics? Hypothetically, Monday was inactive day for me and my heart rate hasn’t gone beyond 70bpm. Tuesday was an active day for me where I had to run to meetings, nevertheless stress typically raise the heart rate. My heart rate was higher then usual. Will Vivofit 3 shows the delta of BMR, where on Tuesday, I have burned more calories?

Sorry, this isn’t an answer to the specific va 3 question, but why would you count calories derived from an “active” day when all you did was go to meetings? Going to meetings is probably something you do often, so regardless of whether you burned calories, your body is probably already accustomed to going to meetings, so it’s no more calories than you normally expend. I mean, if you walk 5 miles every day to work and you’ve done the same thing for years, and your body has already adjusted and grown accustomed to maintaining a certain weight even though you walk five miles a day, then it really doesn’t matter if a watch tracks those calories, because you’d have to do something more than that, or at least do it differently, before your body would change.

Let me elaborate. Per formula (based on age and weight), I burn 1983 static calories per day, whether I’m inactive (1,000 steps per day) in Zone 1 or active (20,000 steps per day) in Zone 2. This number is static, day after day, it’s 1983 (365 days a year) calories without heart rate monitor, plus whatever active calories (e.g. running, cycling, elliptical). I’m pretty sure that BMR will fluctuate based on my level of activity. One way to test this is to start an activity from morning to night with my HRM and perform my daily routine but don’t engage into any fitness activities. I assume that my end of the day my typical Monday and Tuesday will not be a static 1983 calories. Does this make sense? My ask is – does Vivoactive 3 provide the static data in “Calories” section in Garmin Connect, day after day?

The resting calories are fixed and active calories are added each day using HR data. Garmin do it differently to Fitbit or Polar. Garmin take the BMR from standard formula and add a percentage (20%?) to set a value for resting calories. This is the same each day and ony alters when I amend my weight. Other suppliers take the BMR but they seem to add more actvie calories over the day.

Doesn’t this defeat the purpose of 24/7 HR data? I’m trying to understand the logic behind this. Garmin does monitor your HR all day long, yet it doesn’t rely on this data to calculate your BMR throughout the day, specifically rest days from training? Our heart rate is not static all day and telling us that our BMR is static (1983 calories in my case) is bizarre, especially with 24/7 HR data.

Looks like the only workaround is to start an activity for 24 hours long and go on about your day. This will provide an accurate metric of your daily BMR on your day off (e.g. no physical activities). Will it be in the ballpark of 1983 calories? I highly doubt it.

I’m using a “vivoactive 3”. It does rely on the HR data, even the vo2max to measure your calories burned. It shows that i burned 3400 calories yesterday with only one workout that i burned 400 calories. When you have the watch, you can directly calculate your calories but it warns you to open gps and run at least for 20 minutes in order to measure your vo2max and measure your calories burned better.

I’ve a question: as a cyclist (5k to 10k a year), I’m searching for a GPS device who can track my routes and daily activities. I’m now using a Huawei phone with Strava to track my routes, but because of it’s GPS/battery issues I always need external powerbanks for rides longer than 1 hour.

I’m doubting to buy a Garmin VA3 or a Garmin Edge 520 with a cheap activity tracker for the daily activities.

Cycling only? Compared to a bike mounted head unit designed for cycling, watches are lousy for cycling, so definitely the 520. That’s especially true if you have or are thinking of getting a power meter with the VA3. With that kind of (miles? km?) I wouldn’t worry about “steps” either. Now if the activities you’re talking about are running or hiking or skiing, then as a single device a watch is a good choice, but you’ll regret it on the bike.

Of course, if you already own Bluetooth cycling sensors, a 520 can’t use them at all and in that case something like a Wahoo ELEMNT might be a better choice (and read Ray’s comparison of them).

Thank you for the reply. I’m living in the Netherlands, we use KM over here. With daily activities I mean the daily steps, 4 hours of hiking a week and 3 weeks a year of Ski’ing. So maybe a bike specific GPS unit is better then a watch for the activities I want to track. I’ve no power meter and won’t buy one in the upcomming 2 years.

Well I did a hard reset (3rd time now) last night after charging (for batt drain) lost my info for the day and now I can’t sync to Garmin connect. I think this thing is going back to Bestbuy. My polars were the same, but they were a few years older and I was just hopeful that a few years of progress would have fixed some of the little things like this.

Was wondering about the golf – I’m looking for a good fitness watch, but I play alot of golf and don’t want to have to switch watches, and also I track steps while golfing….how many rounds does a single full charge get you through? Do yardages seem accurate? Any other thoughts about the golf functionality? Appreciate any feedback!!

Has anyone done the 2.60 update? How do you do it? There is no info on Garmin connect for it and any time I try to find info on the online manual it says it’s unable to pull up the page and to try again later. Should I get a message in connect when it becomes available? Thanks.

what is the deal with Garmin? Every avenue they give me for help comes up with a message “we sorry this page is currently unavailable”. It has been a constant effort to find any answers about this damm product I have bought. What nonsense. Is it just me? I have never spent so much time trying to figure out problems with my watch only to never get to any answers. Hey Garmin, give me a phone number to call so I don’t have to waste my time looking for info only to fall short cause your site doesn’t work worth a damm. While I’m at it, how in the world are you supposed to post on your Garmin forum? No matter how many times I sign in it will not show me a link to post!!!! Is it me?? I wish I could keep my Garmin but for simple fact of the frustrations I have experienced while trying to get around on the Garmin site and connect I’m out. I urge anyone that has never used a Garmin to second guess what your getting into. It’s a horrible experience. For the record I have used Polar m200, m400 and the 800.

Hmm, looks like they just re-organized their support pages to in theory be more responsive, but I’d agree that it seems like something is amiss.

Most notably is the darn phone numbers. Totally impossible to find now (used to be on a single easy to find page with hours). In any case, here’s a 3rd party site with them listed by country: link to gps-data-team.com

James, I just went to my connect account to see my stats. On the bottom left is “Help”, I clicked that. On the right it says “Go to device support”. I clicked that. Entered in Vivoactive 3 and it brought me to a page asking, essentially “Topic”. I clicked Software Update, and then Garmin Express, brought me to the correct page/section of the manual. Here: link to www8.garmin.com

Note that I’m in the US, YMMV. But the manual seems pretty good. I ordered my watch this past sunday from Clever Training (Thanks Ray!), and it gets delivered today, replacing my Vivoactive (plain old first gen).

Note: with my OG Vivoactive I did many updates with the phone but a few were big enough that I used Garmin Express. Technically I think either should work, but you shouldn’t be using the device while it’s updating. So every few months I would plug in to the PC. If you’re doing a big update, I’d use the PC. The phone is good for small incrementals (IMO). But I haven’t tried yet.

Hi I’m coming from a 935 because I just don’t use it enough but like the abc garmin widget and altimeter and temperature ones too. I believe the va3 is capable of this but cannot add the widgets any one know why not?

Not sure what the issue is for you. I have an ABC widget that works well. If you download the app from the Connect IQ sight you can hold the screen down until the settings page come puts. scroll down to the settings, hit Widgets scroll to the bottom to add one’s you’ve downloaded.

I’ve got the Samsung Gear Sport since yesterday. I want to test the Samsung and the VA3 together and keep the one I like the most. What I noticed allready: – I had a indoor swim this morning and the VA3 counted 2 lanes too much, Samsung was spot on. What I didn’t liked is that the screen from the Samsung went black after a few seconds. On the VA3 you can read the counted lanes constantly. The Samsung monitors your heartrate under water (!) (the accuracy seems allright to me). – The screen from the Samsung is beautifully. – I’m irritated that the screen from Samsung is not always on – The battery from the Samsung is dropping down fast (but that was the VA3 too in the first days). – I went for a 28 minutes walk during my lunch. The counted steps were 250 differently and 90 meters. Also the heartrate is not the same, but does not differ that much. GPS on the VA3 looked more accurate. – I listened to Spotify with the Samsung, it works very well! – The looks are mostly the same. The VA3 is more round. The Samsung is heavier. – The Samsung is really a smartwatch. You can read your e-mail, news, myfitnesspal, more notifications. Lot of apps and widgets. Garmin is more a sportwatch, but with the Samsung you have also sportprofiles you can start manually, like yoga, all sort of fitness, indoor rowing and much more. So if you love gadgets and you’re not a runner of cycler, but you do sport, which watch do you have to choose? 🙂 I will test more the next days, tomorrow fitness, sunday swimming, monday walking

There is only one option for swim tracking. Is synchronizes to your phone – Samsung health app and your phone – SpeedOn app. BUT I cannot connect to SpeedOn. I only have the option there to connect the Fit2… On your watch and on Samsung health app you can get a lot of details of your swim, the same as on the VA3, so I don’t know what the SpeedOn app can have extra?

To be honest I don’t know what “Speedo On” app could provide as an extra. That’s why I asked you 🙂

Around the days of announcement by Samsung in most news it was emphasized that Samsung worked together with Speedo in swim-tracking.

Based on on the information found on Samsung’s site it seems, you have to download separately the “Speedo On” app (I guess from Tizen appstore). You can read around the middle of this page:link to samsung.com

Probably an Android or iOS app was downloaded and installed to your phone. However these 2 new Samsung devices (Gear Fit2 Pro, Gear Sport) are based on Tizen. So the applications running on the watch must be a Tizen one.

In this marketing article below Samsung states only that Gear Fit2 Pro will have Speedo On as a pre-installed app: “The new Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro features the Speedo On swim tracking app pre-installed, which is powered by Speedo’s expertly developed algorithm …”link to news.samsung.com

So based on the aboves I can imagine that – Gear Sport has not been really prepared for the Speedo On app, – Speed On app can be reached soon in Tizen appstore or – Speedo On app will be available directly on your watch via a firmware upgrade.

In the meantime I’ve checked the manuals of these 2 watches regarding Speedo On app: – unfortunately Gear Sport manual does not contain any word about it, – but Gear Fit2 Pro manual has a chapter of Speedo On app.

It look like Gear sport was not yet prepared for it of not prepared in the Netherlands. But, like I mentioned, you can get a lot of data from the watch itself. I swim 4x a week and I have enough info (SWOLF-score, tempo, strike, lanes, time, heartrate, max SWOLF-score, max tempo and more)

I am not going to buy anything like this until it gets smaller. I feel this is marketed as an everyday watch with the sports stuff integrated; it would work for me for the sports stuff but not the everyday. I am OK with wearing a bigger thing on my wrist for a run, but not all the time. None of these devices fit a small wrist adequately. I am eternally disappointed when I see a lovely product which I simply cannot wear.

Hi Ray, love your review (I always love your reviews actually :-), your are very thorought and to the point, but I do miss comparing shots of VA 3 with VA (1), F5(S), FR 935, FR 735XT… And of course shots of The Girl with VA 3! 🙂 Pls could you include them in your review too? I think most of the Garmin new wrist toys are working OK, looking OK. Then deciding factor for me is size, thickness, how comfortable and heavy they are on my 14cm wrist. So seeing these missing comparing and wrist shots is for me crucial deciding factor and I suppose for many people with small wrists it is similar. BTW I still have first VA, I did buy it for me and my mum happily after seeing The Girl shots with it, still mostly happy with them (missing optical sensor and TrueUp synchro to them back), battery lasts forever, really thin, using it as my daily (+night) watches and only for “serious” sport activities I have (bulky, heavy, good looking) F3.

I have very small wrists and also was concerned with the size. I have had this unit for a week now and while this watch is large, it is not thick and very comfortable to wear. The band fits nicely as well. My friends tell me it just looks like a fashion watch. Here are a few photos. The only issue I have had is buying replacement bands as even though they say they are small, they are still too big. I am waiting for Garmin to come out with a few new ones as the original fits pretty well. Now that I have had it for a week, I actually kind of like the band. Overall I am very happy with how it feels on my wrist. BTW, I also bought the Fitbit Ionic and that felt like I was wearing a small television on my arm. It is a great unit, but OMG it is HUGE!

Va3 has new algorithm of hr, which is working constantly. I wonder if it might be dangerous for skin, cause no research works have been done to show that this length of wave of light may lead to cancer.

The relationships between electromagnetic radiation and cancer are well known. There is zero need to test the specific length HR monitors use. Low levels of non-ionizing wavelengths are completely safe. That’s everything up to far ultraviolet; the risks from sunburn are from UV light, not from the visible components. High enough levels of non-ionizing wavelengths might present some risk just from the power deposition through mechanisms connected with heat shock proteins, but it’s highly unlikely that HR LEDs are depositing anything like enough energy for that to be a concern.

I work in cancer research, and I am not remotely worried about the HR in my watch.

Fantastic review, thanks much!! I’m getting ready to purchase my first smart watch and I’m wondering if you have used the Garmin Forerunner 235? I’m debating between the 235 and this vivoactive3. Thanks!

I have the VA3 for about one week now and I can’t get a decent wrist HR accuracy. Watch is placed snugly above wrist bone, no tattoo’s, even hair trimmed in watch shape – but HR is way off : running steadily HR wouldn’t rise going uphill or would later start rising going downhill.At times it produces a choppy graph rising or dropping 15 bpm’s at once. Although I’m waiting prior to an activity for a steady heart sign (ie locked wrist HR) the heart might start blinking the next moment. Watch is on the latest 2.60 fw. Any ideas to improve wrist HR accuracy ?

Finally got a decent wrist HR : – trimmed totally hair where the optical sits – washed and dried same part of hand as per Garmin’s HR tips – switched to 1 sec recording – tightened the band one more notch. After above actions wrist HR seemed to hover about 1-3 bpm’s from strap readings, 6-7 max. Optical : blue, Strap : red. HR curves with slightly different scale, I put them on the same graph just to have a picture.

-The # of data fields thing. I’m really hopeful Garmin will update this in future software updates so we can have 4 in 1, 2 in another, etc. -Screen sensitivity – wish it wasn’t SO sensitive that I have to keep it locked most of the time. -The Workouts function seems watered down – I used Workout Builder on my old VA and it was fantastic; I’m hoping that will become available for the VA3 soon.

I do like that you can access any of the widgets/screens DURING an activity, which you couldn’t do in the first Vivoactive. All the new stress/HR metrics are fun. Plus, stylistically, it’s a nice happy medium between the look of my old VA and my android wear watch. Hopefully some of the weird choices they made will get polished up in future software updates…

the #of data fields thing seems strange call by Garmin. I’m not quite sure how they justify that on a $300 watch. That behaviour has knock-on efffects on how certain apps can then work. I’m not sure if this knock-on behaviour is intentional by garmin

great review as always. I’ve now run into an issue repeatedly when I try to use the device to track cycling activities using an external ANT+ heart rate monitor.

Pretty soon after starting the workout the touch screen functionality is totally wacked – Swiping works extremely slugglishly and pushing not at all. The physical button works to get into the menu and also to turn off the device (5 sec. or longer push).

The workout records fine, but the only way to end and save the activity is to plug in the cable, turn on and off, and (I guess this is the actual issue) get the device off my arm and the heart rate strap off.

Any thoughts on this issue, or have you noticed the isses yourself?

(Maybe an issue might be sweat/ moisture on the screen due to wearing a long sleeve jersey?!)

Cheerio and thanks for all the great content (and the little chat we had in rainy Dusseldorf at the TdF Prologue)

Hey Ray, great review as usual. Was wondering on your opinion between this and the FR735XT in terms of futureproof-ness? Even though the 735XT is a year behind I’ve seen a lot of discussion saying that Garmin are planning to ditch the old OS and instead move forward with the new one on the F5, FR935, etc. Could you shed any light on this, as really don’t want to buy a watch and then have it be obsolete due to no updates happening to it?

1) It sounds like the double-tap to lap works pretty well, but I assume the exact split time matches the second tap of the screen? That seems like it would make the time fairly imprecise for shorter intervals like 200s and 400s.

Do I get it right, that backlight is either always on or always off? I’m talking about regular watch face, not when in activity mode. I currently own VAHR and I like that backlight comes in only when I either touch a screen or push a button, so it doesn’t bother me at night or when I just am in a dark roomas I understand VA 3 doesn’t have this option…

I was reading reviews on amazon (I do very thorough research before I buy smth lol), and some people reported that how it was. So basically people say different things and I got confused. Thanks for clearing that for me!

possible explaination: I just got mine a few days ago and immediately updated to FW 2.60. Perhaps it’s an older version.

Semi-related note: there’s a setting to automatically enable Do Not Disturb during sleep hours, so the watch doesn’t vibrate while sleeping. I’d love it if they expanded it to include an option to disable the backlight during Do Not Disturb. While I’m sleeping I hate rolling over and having a Light House shining on my wrist! I can understand some people might want to be able to see the time while laying in bed, but I’ve got a clock that works just fine!

Is there an option to turn off gesture backlight (I guess it’s when you just move your hand)? That would annoy the heck out of me, because I do want to see time at night haha plus it’s unnecessary battery drain…

So got my VA3 last Thursday. The non-GPS activity tracking and smart watch functions have been great however every time I’ve done a run over a few miles so far the watch has either restarted mid-run (2 times) or the touch screen has become frozen (all other runs). The GPS would keep tracking the after the restart and start of a new activity but when the screen freezes I can’t end the runs unless I attach it to the power cord and my computer.

Saturday I did a 26 mile loop around a lake and about 2 or 3 miles in the screen froze. When I finally got home I was at least glad I was able to stop the run by plugging it into my computer and save the data but during the run it wasn’t good. We took a little over 5 hours to do the loop and at the end the battery was down to about to 40% from 100%. As far as tracking the two other guys I ran with both got a full half mile more than me on their GPS. All together really disappointed.

Overall I guess I got a complete lemon and I’m going to return it to REI and probably just get the Fenix.

I’ve been struggling with setting auto lap distance. I set it to 1km but every time it syncs with the phone it resets to 0.62km (i.e. 1km / 1.61). I did find the cure: 1) In the Connect app go to the device settings and switch to Miles 2) Sync and then set the lap distance you want (ignore it’s in miles, just set it to 1 mile) 3) Back in the Connect app, switch back to km 4) Sync again, a lo and behold the auto-lap is now set at 1km (and stays like that)

Just as a super quick heads up, since a number have asked over the last 60 days, Clever Training Europe/UK finally has listings now for the Vivoactive 3. As always, for Euro folks* you can use the DCR discount code of DCR10BTF to get 10% off the price, plus of course free European shipping. All of which helps support the site.

You can’t get 10% off on the US side due to Garmin restrictions, but you can get 10% back in points with the VIP program (link to dcrainmaker.com). And free shipping. All of which basically just makes you awesome.

in the VA3 table / SENSORS last line “COMPATIBLE WITH FIRSTBEAT HR TOOLS” there is nothing (-). Does it mean that R-R (HRV) values are not saved in the .Fit file during a workout with wrist OHR? I had a look in Ray’s File Vivoactive3-2114839557.fit with WOHR but no R-R there, neither Training Effect (nor VO2max estimate)

what about using HR chest monitor such as HRM RUN or TRI. Does VA3 save R-R values then, and compute TE or VO2Max? or these features are only for High end watches (Fenix5, FR935, ..).

Hi, Thanks for the review. Any idea why there is a difference in price for the different colour variants? The all-black is $50 more expensive than the other two variants here in Australia. Wondering if you know of any reason for that?

What would you recommend for a every day usage (training and smartwatch) for a Triathlete? I would use it all day in the office (should look good) I would like to track my sleep and activity and also the daily training sessions and even races (up to 70.3 nowadays). The connectivity to apps without PC is important for me. I do SBR using my Elite trainer a lot indoor for bike sessions as I am really time crunched guy. Sometimes go to the gym for functional training. The main problem I have a budget which keeps my away from the top end stuff like Fenix and Spartan. What would you recommend based on your experience?

Hi there – I have a slate VA3 which I purchased around 10 days ago and it is up to date with the latest firmware (2.60).

I have noticed an interesting bug whilst attempting to use the HRM broadcast feature on the VA3. If you select the ‘Broadcast’ option from the Heart Rate Settings screen this isn’t working properly as none of my other ANT+ devices (Edge 520, Zwift setup using an ANT+ USB stick) can find the heart rate when trying to add a sensor.

The workaround is to ensure ‘Broadcast in Activity’ is selected and then start an activity- and hey presto, the heart rate is now visible to other devices!

I have logged this with Garmin UK today but they have said as yet they have not received any other reports of this. I would appreciate anyone trying it to see of theirs works and letting Garmin know if not! If yours works, and also be interested. Many thanks!

Just a heads up in case anyone else has also been experiencing fairly rapid battery drain on their VA3: I chatted with Garmin just now, and they’re aware it’s still an issue and are hoping to push out a software update soon to resolve it.

I charged my watch to 100% last night and with very little tinkering on the watch and no activities, it’s down to about 84% at lunchtime today. That’s actually an improvement from what I was seeing earlier – I did a hard reset on the watch (not a factory reset – just holding down the side button until the watch powers down) and that seemed to help a bit.

Hi there I currently have a pebble time steel smart watch and it is just starting to give me issues now so I am looking for a new watch. This one has really caught my attention but I am not 100% sold on it. I read through this review and it is fantastic! Your website was actually recommended to me by a garmin employee. I have a wish list for what I would like to see in a watch please respond by telling me yes or no on each item. 1. Always on display 2. Customizable digital style watch faces 3. 4+ day battery life (no GPS usage) 4. Semi accurate Heart Rate tracking 5. Sunlight readable 6. Sleep tracking (included in 4 day battery life) 7. Notifications for any and all apps (phone, messages, skype, facebook, email, calander etc.) 8. Canned responses for text messages and or email facebook etc. 9. Ability to answer or reject phone calls (I am always wearing bluetooth) 10. Voice replies for text or other respondable notifications. 11. Universal changable watch bands 12. Find my phone feature 13. Control music from my watch (play, pause, skip, previous, volume up and down)

I realize that some of my questions have been answered by your review but I would really appreciate if you just answered them all on here because by the time I got to the end I forgot some of these answers lol

Also have you ever done a review or comparison on a samsung gear s3? That is another one I am looking at as my cell phone is a samsung s8

1. yes 2. yes 3. yes 4. yes (tracks well throughout the day, activities like weights or cycling decrease accuracy as it puts pressure on the capillaries on the wrist where this is taking the measurement from) 5. yes (its easiest to read in very bright sunlight or of course with the backlight) 6. yes 7. yes (all notifications you get on the phone will also show on your wrist) 8. yes 9. yes 10. no 11. yes (but universal bands will not have the quick release) 12. yes 13. yes

You will not be dissatisfied with this watch. I too came from a pebble but I came aboard with the first Vivoactive.

I got the Vivoactive 3 last Friday, partially based on this review. Overall I am very satisfied with it, but I went on a test jog last night in Central London along the Regent’s Canal, and I am EXTREMELY disappointed with the accuracy of GPS tracking.

Looks like there are 3 different heart rate tools to use. You have the average resting, the lowest over the last 4 hours and then on connect in the calendar on the main page for the day a min and max for the day (I think?). I’m trying to figure out which one to use for basing my training on for the day. The average doesn’t really move much (1 or 2 beats). I was using the lowest of the four past hours as soon as I woke up but have noticed that the min number in the calendar was anywhere from 5 to 3 beats lower. What do you use?

The watch face on my VA3 has these 3 small icons for steps, stairs, etc. with a circle to show completion. One of the above posters shows his watch with actual numbers. How can I change mine and can I pick which data to be on the face. All I have been able to figure out is to add the day/date in the Garmin area.

I’ve got an issue that I’m afraid no one else has… When pressing the button, there are missing activites in the list, that I cannot put back! Sad thing is that it is the 3 activites I was using most: running, biking, and walking.

They simply aren’t in the fav list, and when I try to add them, they aren’t in the list VA3 shows me. Cannot find them in the IQ store.

I did this somehow when changing the settings on the Vivoactive 3 Walk indoor activity on the watch. The only way I managed to get it back was by restoring defaults from the watch settings/system menu. I then had to delete and reinstall the Garmin Connect app on my iPhone as the Vivoactive 3 stopped connecting to it after restoring defaults on the watch.

In Garmin Connect Mobile, if you go to menu (3 bars)>Activities & Apps you should have a 3 part list – “Favorites”, “More Activiites & Apps” &, at the bottom of the list, “Removed”.

If you tap on a Removed item you should get the option to install which should then add it to the “More Activiites & Apps”.

Clicking the + next to a “More Activiites & Apps” entry should add it to the “Favorites” which will show first when you press the button. The “More Activiites & Apps” entries should show if you tape the 4 dots option at the bottom of the list that appears when you press the button.

I’ve found that sometimes it takes more than one go to get these choices to save.

Can you add the gym and outdoor activity profiles to other Garmin devices? In other words, could I add yoga or rowing to a FR235 or the Fenix 5s? The description says “preloaded profiles” and that seems to imply that you can add them after the fact.

The Vivoactive 3 has some disadvantages on the runnings specs, but i’m curious about what it says about Cadence. On that table says that the vivoactive doesn’t provide cadence stats. Is that correct? Because my Vivoactive (the first one) does have cadence stats.

I’ve been a long time Garmin fan and luv Garmin Connect. However, I am so tired of the many different charging units, connectivity methods, etc. I have a kitchen drawer dedicated to cords, connections and HOW TO DO notes so I don’t forget. I currently use a Garmin :

I would luv to consolidate and have 1 Super Device ( possible ?) and I hate always chasing the technology . I bought my FR225 only for the 235 to come out months later.

Im thinking about the Fenix 5 or the Vivo Active 3. Riding yesterday looking at the 500, I thought can I really use the Fenix 5 or Vivo Active 3 as a replacement ? or will I be disappointed. The Fenix 5 is nice with the current sale price, but also concerned Garmin replaces that over the next year as well. And I understand that the Vivo Active won’t help me in Tri’s or open swim

Hmm, not ideal. Though, that looks like a defective hardware issue, and not a software issue. The tell-tale sign is the random spike in elevation, which usually implies some sort of mechanical problem with your unit*. I haven’t seen that reported elsewhere.

*A semi-similar thing happened with some Fenix 3HR a year or so ago and was eventually tracked down to a bad batch component that was highly susceptible to static electricity. While I doubt we’re seeing that on the Vivoactive 3, my guess is you just got a dud.

I have two questions. – Are you aware of any plans to integrate with Google Fit? – Do you believe there will be a major price change/black Friday sale for Europe? I know you say generally new products don’t get any kind of sale but there a rumors about an FR-245.

A) Not aware of anything there B) I believe I’ve seen a few Black Friday ads showing the VA3 down at either $249 or $259. I think it was Best Buy, but can’t remember off-hand. Generally speaking for Garmin they treat all retailers the same there – so anyone would have it.

I wouldn’t expect any further products this year in the sports tech realm from any companies, aside from one announcing tomorrow, but that’s not related to wearables.

From what I understand the Vivoactive 3 has some functionality to download “apps” to it. I’m interested in something that would lead you through workouts – for instance, lead you through a TRX routine or a weights routine. Are there any such applications available for it? Is there somewhere I can browse the selection?

Ray – great review as always. Thanks for the CT discount for VIP membership!

Can you post some pics comparing the VA3 to the F5 series? I am really curious how it compares. I am on the fence leaning towards the VA3 (upgrading my Vivosmart HR+ and want to stop carrying my Garmin 1000 on trips just to record gym gym stationary bike rides with my HR monitor).

Best Buy’s Black Friday sale will have the Vivoactive HR for $120 and the Vivoactive 3 for $250. Which is the better deal? I was thinking about getting the HR since it was your best all around road running watch last year.

The VA3 does Vo2 max, stress, rep counting, and customized workouts. It also has updated hardware which will track your 24/7 hr better (workout is the same as VAHR) and steps/stairs more accurately. Also it has Garmin pay.

The VAHR has a much better battery life than the VA3 – I swear I was getting almost 2 weeks out of it. So compare those features and the looks and go with what you like. I personally think the VA3 looks much better but $double price better? IDK. I personally cannot sleep with either on.

Any help would be appreciated, am really torn between a few devices. I’m a cyclist, using Zwift for indoor training, road bike and mountainbike outside. My main goal for a smart/sportswatch is to improve my fitness/endurance level, while also using it as regular watch during the day. I have an Edge 500 for cyling use, which doesn’t have the latest fancy features but still does a perfect job while riding outside, both on the road and for mountainbiking. So I’m not looking to use a watch as a replacement bike computer, but more to monitor other things during the day. E.g. next to cycling I do quite some walking/hiking during summer time, I go for a regular swim, etc…

So the VA3 looks interesting, however will it provide me an fitness overview after a certain period of time? So here is my line of thinking:

Fenix 3HR, with the price drop very interesting, but probably development will stop soon, doesn’t support the latest Connect IQ version Fenix 5/FR935, I find these too expensive, could then better go for an Edge 520 (or 820) and a fitness tracker (vivosport or so) Apple Watch, interesting with the price drop, I can buy the series 2 for 299€. only daily charging am not too keen on. I already have other Apple devices. VA3, interesting, I don’t care about payments or music onboard. Combination of a regular watch and the sports featues are quite nice. FR735, possibly interesting with a price drop with black friday, however looks “plasticy” for wear during the day/business use.

So bottom line, for a pure cyclist, road&mountain, What would the people here with some experience on these different devices think? Also looking at long term use, I’m generally quite easy on my equipment.

Provided you own an iPhone, you’ll get a lot more use out of the Apple Watch than any Garmin watch because the AW is a much better smart watch than the Garmins. Answering or declining calls (even on the non-LTE versions) answering texts by voice or Scribble or canned responses, Siri, etc., all can’t be done on a Garmin (well the VA3 now has canned responses, and I suspect that’s easy to move to the others in software, and Garmin Pay is just rolling out now).

Like you I do road and mountain, and I own an Edge 1000 for that and an AW3 LTE (replaced a series 0). I use the AW all of the time I’m not on a bike (or in the winter when we have snow out cross country skiing). When I’m on the bike or skiing I don’t wear it. I own an Epix for skiing and hiking. I have no interest in the “rest of the time”, since my rides are tracked by the 1000 and are the most intense activity of the day, I don’t care about “steps”, and I don’t “track” my sleep (did that for a while with a Withings Pulse, found it useless; it’s pretty easy to tell how well you’ve slept without any device), and I personally don’t care about heart rate tracking during the rest of the day either. I have all of the fitness stuff on my AW (rings, nagging, etc.) turned off. But the AW can do all of that, and being more programmable than the Garmins with a larger group of developers it’s much more likely that you’ll find an app that you’ll like to do what you want if you don’t like the provided software. Daily charging just doesn’t bother me; I put the watch on its stand at night when I put my iPhone on its at night, and they’re both ready to go in the morning.

The major thing in favor of getting a Garmin is that it’ll better serve as a temporary replacement for your 500 should it die until you can get an Edge to replace it (will connect to all of the same ANT+ sensors, will upload to Garmin Connect, etc.). I used my Epix for that when my 800 developed problems, and got a 1000 as quickly as possible after that. The other possibility is if Garmin ever gets its act together about people with multiple devices doing various activities you may see some advantage to using all Garmin, but it hasn’t happened yet.

I had the Edge 500, and upgraded to the Edge 520. I’ve also had a Forerunner 910XT and a Vivofit.

I’ve currently got a Vivoactive 3 and an Edge 520, which I used to use with either a Wahoo Tickr (before it died) and after a Schoche Rhythm+.

I do road biking, commuting, running, Zwift and the occasional bit of MTB.

What would you like to know?

You say that the “main goal for a smart/sportswatch is to improve my fitness/endurance level, “.

I’m not sure that many of the watches are likely to help you improve your fitness level, but they will allow you to track it.

I’ve recently started using the watch to broadcast my HR to my Edge 520 or to Zwift, so that it will use these measurements for the Vo2 estimates.

The main issue is that optical HR isn’t amazingly accurate on the bike, so I’m taking the readings with a pinch of salt.

I’ve been on a run or ride, going hard and looked at the watch, which is showing 120bpm, when I know from experience that it is more likely 170-180bpm.

As a day to day watch, and fitness tracker, I’m really happy. I’ve had Android wear watches before also, and just think that this is more “like a watch”. It’s smart enough for wearing with a shirt or in the office, but fine for sports.

Hi thanks for the feedback, what I’m really looking for in a smartwatch is data which can show improvements over a period of time. That maybe has more to do with the backend platform itself rather then the watch. E.g. I read that Suunto movescount provides more analysis features then Garmin Connect. I have no idea from Apple

That’s the main goal I have with a smart/sportswatch, Improve fitness/endurance level.

Maybe that’s an idea Ray could get into, next to the devices we’re buying and he’s testing, which platforms provide the best data analysis afterwards? Rather have something out of the box coming with a new watch, then paying for another service like trainingpeaks…

Garmin will have much better analytics out of the box than Apple Health. However, Apple’s strength is in their ecosystem and using the Strava watch app (or a competitor) with a premium subscription (extra $6 per month) is likely going to blow the VA3 Connect analytics/training regimens out of the water. Of course you can set up Garmin to upload your workouts to Strava and accomplish some of the same.

I think the ANT+ support for speed, cadence, and HRM sensors is a huge advantage for Garmin but that may be moot if you transfer your Garmin 500 to all your bikes. The ANT+ HRM Broadcast functionality could be a big win though if you forgot/don’t want to wear your chest strap with your 500.

Both watches use heart rate to calculate calories burned (which is a step up from many other fitness trackers).

As a smartwatch for an iPhone user, the Apple Watch kills. The Siri functionality makes it much faster to access things instead of interacting with the tiny screen and the third-party app support is phenomenal. For example, my wife and I use Wunderlist to sync our grocery list and there is an Apple Watch app that syncs your list and allows you to check things off as you shop.

As a fitness/sleep tracker Garmin wins hands down, at least out of the box. I was dissapointed to learn that the Apple Watch doesn’t have *any* built in sleep tracking functionality. There are a lot of great third-party apps for the Apple Watch that are potentially better than Garmin Connect.

For your goals of improving fitness/endurance Garmin’s native support for structured workouts is probably the biggest boon.

The place where Garmin destroys Apple across the board is in battery life. You need to charge the AW every day vs once a week for the VA3 and GPS workout life is 5 hours instead of 10+ with Garmin. For me at least I would be unable to track a century ride with an Apple watch and would barely survive a metric century.

For serious training I think the Fenix3/HR is easily the best value. Yes it won’t get new apps and firmware updates, but the base fitness tracking is going to remain better than the VA3 (power meter support, etc.), the physical buttons make it easier to navigate while moving, and it’s a much more rugged watch. The 51mm case looks kinda crazy though unless you have huge wrists.

You’ve said its not compatible with the swim HRM, but I thought the swim HRM and Tri HRM differ only due to the chest strap. Are you saying that in swim mode, it does not connect to either HRM strap? On my 935, the watch and either my swim or tri HRM synchronize at the start of the swim, and then the data downloads when I press stop at the end of the swim – so the VA3 doesn’t work this way?

You’ve said there’s no open water mode. Here’s a test if you still have the VA3… I assume the issue is that the GPS can’t connect as fast as the garmin watches, so Garmin has simply disabled GPS & open water swim mode. Do you know if you put it in “run” mode, and tuck it in a swim buddy (i.e. a swimming float) , would you then see open water data… albeit measured as a run? You wouldn’t get stroke count, but would get speed, distance and a route map (and if I recall correctly, you can change sports in Garmin Connect… so record it as a run and then change to open water swim)

Why does this not have audio alerts for commands when doing workouts? I would like a watch for running that looks nice, tracks calories, steps, sleep, has GPS, Bluetooth uploading and workouts, but with an audio alert to tell me when to walk/run/sprint on my intervals. Is there such a device anymore please?

If you do openwater swims, go with the FR735XT. If however, you don’t do that and don’t do triathlons (and don’t care about some of the fancier metrics that might come from an external HR strap), then go with the Vivoactive 3.

Given that the built-in swimming app disables the HRM, are you able to just run an alternate app, like running, when you swim, to measure your heart rate? I’ve owned a Garmin Swim watch and the original Vivoactive and they have never, not once, recorded the number of laps correctly. The fact you cant change this metric post workout means all the other stats are next to useless. So now, I’d just be content with time, and average heart rate so I can record it manually…

I live in Europe but have a relative that currently is travelling in Canada and I’m about to ask this person to buy a VA3 steel and bring home to save me some money. I noted that the Item model number differs at the Amazon.ca site from that at Amazon.com (010-01769-00 at the former, while 010-01769-01 at the latter ). Do you think this indicates different revisions of the hardware? Is there a risk that 010-01769-00 has some issues that has been corrected with a hardware spin or his this purely logistics marking?

Ray, Is this a good upgrade from a Polar M400 or is the new Polar M430 the better bet? I primarily use HR for guidance when I run and use the phased workouts. I like being able to customize my data views per sport profile. I’ve been using the Polar Running Index to gauge my progress and the training load to determine my recovery time needed between training. I’m using a Milestone Pod as a footpod for cadence. Thanks!

Does anyone have the Garmin Vivoactive 3 and own a Milestone Pod that can confirm whether the Garmin VA3 will show the real-time metrics from the Milestone pod? I contacted Milestone and they do not have enough info to confirm.

I’m in the exact same situation as you John, but I also use my vivoactive for swimming. I’m very disappointed that the vivoactive 3 disables the HRM while swimming. Is the Samsung Gear Sport a viable alternative? It appears the GPS is inaccurate and its difficult exporting data to third party platforms but the HRM remains on while swimming…

I think if the garmin stored music it would make the decision much easier, as I am already familiar with the garmin ecosystem I am tempted to stay with them, unless anyone can give me a reason to change?

After slacking off at work Wednesday night, studying your reviews before Black Friday, I became fixated on this watch. My previous Garmin 15 had one button that fell off, but my biggest complaint was how ugly that purple was!! It’s hard to imagine anyone could need all of the functions available on this watch…well I mean except for you!! I just love it, what a great toy! It’s way more watch then I need, but it’s attractive and comfortable! I got it for free after waiting in line (virtual and otherwise) 7 hours @ Target to buy the latest iPhone. And I love it so much, I would gladly have paid for it!! The phone is a whole other story, working on that learning curve. Thanks so much for your unbelievably detailed reviews!! Hope you enjoy all your new Black Friday stuff, I know I will.

Howdy Ray, I’ve had the VAHR for over a year now and my biggest gripe is the ability to read the face in bright sunlight. Also the screen is easily scratched. It sounds like the VA3 is much brighter so easier to see with a better screen, is that the case?

I really like this watch except for one thing, the manual lap. A double tap for splits is really difficult. I found that I miss about 10% of the splits. Plus trying running mile race pace and see how easy a double tap is on the watch. Surely they could come up with a data field that has a stop watch button to solve this problem

Hi all. The touchscreen is terrible in the water. The water actually keeps triggering the buttons to act like you are pressing them but then if you lock the screen you can’t use the stopwatch to do intervals in a water based activity ie kayaking, Sup etc. Is there anyway you can switch off the touchscreen and still use the stopwatch. Otherwise it’s a totally useless purchase

I have Vivosmart 3 and Polar M600. The Garmin device behaves just like Vivoactive 3 on water e.g. display flashes all the time randomly between screens and sometimes some actions trigger on by itself. If Vivoactive 3 is similar (as you have noticed) then this device is not for swimmers like me.

On the other hand Polar M600 is just perfect on water. I can easily use both touchscreen and it’s two buttons to operate while on water (above the surface, but still dripping wet hands). And I have used to toggle screen on (easily by swiping down, and selecting toggle switch – and works flawlessly with wet hands) so I can briefly look the statistics even during and of course between runs while resting. And M600 record HR on water just fine, it may be about 5 beats down but otherwise the readings correlate lap times & swolf nicely. Polar M600 can also store music on device. My unit is about one year old, but still going strong. Polar Flow has also some properties over Garmin Connect like training benefit & recovery time analysis.

I was hoping to be able to upgrade Vivosmart 3 to Vivoactive 3 just to get light device to be on my wrist with GPS added and have 24/7 HR tracking (which is only thing that M600 lacks) to be my one and only daily driver, but as Vivoactive is just as bad as Vivosmart on water I need to look elsewhere. I may sell VS3 and go to 100% Polar (maybe for lighter M430 with 24/7 HR for activity tracking/running and continue to use M600 for water sports & smartwatch & on board music use cases).

Hi! I’m a Studio owner and Group Fitness Instructor. I’ve had the original Vivoactive for over 2.5 years and have loved it from the start I just received the VA3 on Wednesday. I purchased both watches based off of your reviews. Tried it for the first time in class this morning. One of my clients also purchased one. We both tried it in Strength mode but I am wondering if we should use Cardio or something else. Here is the format of my class: 5 minute warmup 4 minute TABATA Weight lifting/strength training for the next 35 minutes 15 minute cool down.

It registered my Max HR at 153 but her at only 109. I’m 39 and in great shape and she is in her early 30’s and in excellent shape as well.

Loved the review. It’s the reason why I finally bought it last week and took it out for a long run during the weekend. I found that the battery didn’t last very long. After 7 hours of running, it was already down to 9%. Was worried that the watch would die on me, so I ‘ended’ my run and saved the data and continued with my workout. Do you have any advice on preserving the battery life? I had the GPS mode on, but not the GPS+GLONASS. Another option for me, of course, is to run faster… or bring a powerbank.

It’s not that I run 7 hours every Sunday, but would be nice to know how I can save battery life.

Hey! Thanks for the reply. I was running in sunny Singapore. So, no long sleeve issue here. Yes, I read about the backlight being a drain on battery life so I’ve already set the brightness down to 10%. Timeout is Medium and Gestures was On.

I did find that my hand would rub against the side swipe thing during the run, but not sure if that has anything to do with it.

I recently returned the gear sport and got the VA3. I much happier. I have a question about watch faces. When I see them on the I connect store they look so nice and in color but then I download them and on my watch they are only in black and white. Does anyone know why or how to correct this? Thanks.

Hello, I just received my VA3, but I am experiencing a problem with HR monitor, during the day it measures my heart rate pretty well, but as soon as I start an activity (threadmill) the bpm never go above 104-106 even if both my chest strap and the threadmill show a 130- 140 frequency . i have tried to reboot, to change position on the wrist and even change the wrist but no improvment in this behaviour, I read on Amazon reviews that i am not the only one with this issue, any clues?

Friends. Last night I had a one hour workout with GPS/Glonass enabled. My VA3 was paired with my Scosche armband. I dropped 16% battery life. Does that sound right to you? I’m not getting anywhere near their battery estimates.

By my estimate you would then have a total of around 6.25 hours of GPS+GLONASS battery life. Having GLONASS enabled does affect battery life according to DC Rainmaker, but probably not by 50%. Were you doing a workout where the backlight kept being activated?

I wouldn’t be surprised if the 13 hour claim was with GPS only, Smart Recording, screen locked, low-backlight, etc.

The backlight on this watch has issues. I have it coming on only during activities for gestures. But, it will usually come on with gestures even if I am not doing any activities. Looks like I should call their tech support. Thanks.

definitely contact support about the backlight. There are a few threads on the Garmin forums about it and I’m currently talking with support about it, I sent them a zip file last night. You’re definitely not the only one with a backlight that has a mind of it’s own.

I got email back from them. I’d already sent them links to others with the issue in the Garmin forums and also a complete zip file of the Garmin folder on my watch. The email I got back was basically “should be fixed in a software update, keep updating”. So either they were brushing me off or they had sufficient info to identify the problem. I’m hoping for the best but it wasn’t the most confident reply. Surprising, I haven’t interacted with their support a lot but it’s usually been more definitive. This was more vague.

Love the watch so far. I upgraded from a forerunner 230 and a vivofit 3. My only issues have been figuring out the display. Back Light Issues I have found: 1. If you leave the display on but set the auto gesture to off. This makes the screen stay lit the entire time you are recording an activity. (Discovered this during Yoga, I was the lighthouse in the dark room) The screen will not turn off until the activity is ended. 2. Clothing brushes- After a few day runs of bad battery performance, I went on a night run. During the run my long sleeves kept activation g the screen. I had to pull the sleeves above my wrist.

My Solution- I have the display brightness set as one of the quick menus, Before I start an activity, I select the brightness and turn the back-light off. Until it gets sorted out in the firmware it is not really necessary for most activities. When I run at night, I use a headlamp. It is fine for indoor cycling class since I am wearing short sleeves.

Could be a dumb question, but since it isn’t specifically called out in the review (though a comment hints at it), does Garmin Pay require a phone to be present? Doesn’t seem like it should be, but I’ve just begun researching sport/smart watches.

Question for the ladies (and I mean ladies, not men with slender wrists.)

I’m considering one of these for my better half as a general sports watch/activity tracker/smartphone notifications type watch. She already has a running watch that does 2/3 of those but it doesn’t look casual enough for 24/7 wear and day to day use. I also worry about the face size; it’s the same as my 935 (which is perfect for me, even with slender unmanly forearms.)

Does it look unusually big, is it comfortable, and does it look smart/normal enough by watch standards not to look out of place at work?

Mr T I am guessing you were looking for a Christmas gift for your gal, so this might be too late, but I am a female with small/avg wrists. It looks fantastic, not bulky, not overly large. Very sleek & I’ve had people comment that they never would’ve guessed it was an active watch until looking closely at it. I do plan to buy an additional strap that is a bit dressier, but most likely I would not wear if I wear in a fancy situation (which is rare for me), I’m also thinking of buying another athletic/fun strap, (esp. heading into spring when I do more yard work, sports with the kids, etc) so I can keep this white strap clean/nice. Hope this help.

Overall content with the device for the sale price but as a triathlete looking for the one watch, thinking that Fenix would’ve been a better option. And like so many others, wish Garmin would add music storage. Until then will continue to supplement with Bragi Dash headphones.

I live in the US, but also travel to Europe for extended bike tours. Will the GPS in the VA3 work in both places? I know that for the Edge Explore 1000 I have to load European maps, but since there are no maps in the VA3, I’m guessing that the GPS chip will record my location and then plot it through the Garmin Connect app.

I have the watch, so far I didn’t find an app which can show power data from my Indoor trainer (Tacx), while power does show up in Zwift from the trainer, it’s just about reading out from the trainer. For the moment I’m recording Zwift separately, and uploading to strava, at the same time record with the watch, however some things to consider: – Cadence is the same as on Zwift – Speed is different on the watch then on Zwift – So far no power on the watch, can somebody point me to an app that can do this as Ray also said it in his post?

I’m now ending up with e.g. 10km ridden on Zwift, and only 5km on Garmin connect through the watch as speed is not the same. However for cycling I’m using Strava as reference and for anything else it’s Garmin connect.

However, it’s not currently set as compatible for the Vivoactive 3. Perhaps if you hit up the ‘Contact Developer’ option and asked him/her to make it list as compatible for the Vivoactive 3, then you’d be good to go.

Crazy! I was just going to ask a very similar question. How can I get Indoor Cycling workouts connected to Zwift? I either need Zwift to read the heart rate from the watch, or the watch to get the workout from Zwift. I prefer the latter since I would like for the activity to be recorded on the watch so that I get credit for the activity. Also, using a CycleOps Hammer if that makes a difference..

Garmin could replace it down the road as a service request. But honetsly, you’ll likely kill the watch or move onto another device well before that happens.

Despite lots of concerns about non-user servicable batteries, the actuality of that being a problem down the road rarely occurs from the comments I’ve seen. Units last far longer than people care to have them (4-6+ years in most cases).

I found this while looking for ‘battery’ in the reader generated comments. I have the last version VA and the battery degraded enough within 2 years that it won’t keep time correctly (it just slows down until it’s manually synced with the app or connected to a satellite from an outdoor activity) according to Garmin after several emails, some resets and a zip file. If a watch can’t tell you the correct time, the other features are quickly forgotten. They are offering a $100 battery replacement or 20% off a new watch.

I run daily, so maybe I have had more charge/recharge cycles than the normal user, but I sure wasn’t ready to ‘move onto another device’ when it doesn’t seem like terribly long ago that I bought it. Would a device like a Garmin Fenix or Suunto Spartan with larger battery capacity mitigate that sort of thing? It feels like less discharge cycles would mean longer battery life. Or I would just end up spending 500+ every 4 years instead of 250-300 every 2 years….

Thanks for the in-depth review. I’m choosing between this watch and the Suunto Spartan Trainer. Intended uses are a daily walk which includes significant climbing ( tracking ascent is important), Nordic skiing, and elliptical. I currently use an Ambit 3 Peak for hiking (it’s been great) and want to add a watch with optical HR for daily activities. Recommendations are welcome.

I currently have a Vivoactive HR. It’s very common that if I flick to the HR screen, the initially displayed HR is quite different from the value a few seconds later once it has a ‘lock’) the heart icon stops flashing). For the 24/7 recording the VA HR, does it sporadically get a ‘lock’ (based partly on detected motion levels), or does it just use the pre-lock data?

Am I right to think that the VA3 would not suffer from the same effect? Presumably it always has a ‘lock’? Or does it just record pre-lock data more frequently…? (In which case it would be pretty useless!)

Since the VA3 sensor seems to be the same as the FR935 one, the same applies here. The new low power 24/7 mode will be a little better though since the last gen sensors had to guess current hr from accelerometer data when turned off. But don‘t expect wonders, for me low power hr is often off by 20-30 bpm from chest strap hr and will take up to half a minute to achieve a decent lock.

I have the vivoactive 3 and whenever I swipe between a screen or touch any screen the backlight comes on. Is there any way that the backlight comes on only when I do a certain action eg. lift wrist. Thanks, great review pleas anyone reply.

As a Vivoactive HR user, I was looking forward to the Vivoactive 3 but after two tries with the watch, it’s going back and I’m sticking with the ‘HR’ version for a while longer.

Despite the new sleep setting screens (where you can set your sleep and wake times), I still get notifications on my watch during the night (same as the HR) so I have to toggle Bluetooth off every night.

The vibration function is weak (‘high’ on the Vivoactive 3 is less then my ‘low’ setting on the HR).

The touch sensitive bezel is pretty useless as the watch is too thin to really use it effectively (though you can disable it).

The side button has been too easily pressed during sports where your wrist is bent or wearing heavy gloves (skiing for example). Yes, I know you can change the orientation of the watch face so the button is on the left but then it isn’t as convenient to use.

Battery life has been really bad (it lasts 1/2 as long as my HR does). Part of that issue seems to be the watch face I was using and going back to ‘stock’ helped but during activities it still drops more than the HR.

The OS isn’t optimized for a circular screen which can be infuriating as you have a small area to toggle switches. (The Gear S3 is a good example of an OS customized for a circular screen).

There are a lack of good digital watch faces. Maybe I’m getting older, but I don’t want to ‘think’ to figure out exactly what time it is. I just want the numbers and there is a lack of good digital watch faces and the third party ones gave me battery drain.

I agree with everything said. Not sure about battery life though, because my watch stopped working in the first week, so I returned it. Got second one and it had a glass defect, so I returned it again, and then after reading multiple complaints on garmin forum about battery life not being long enough, sync issues, weak vibration (such a bummer!) I decided not to buy it again. I got fenix 5s instead (my VA HR is half broken, and I wanted to stay with garmin platform). Had it for a week now, it does everything I wanted and extra, so far very happy with it (fenix).

Does anyone have any thoughts on how to track a “bootcamp” style class? What I have in mind is one of those classes were you have a set treadmill and strength training intervals. I want to try the mileage for half marathon training purposes.

I have got a Vivoactive 3 as a replacement for my Wife’s Vivoactive Version 1. She is loving it at the moment but has two questions.

She has found that she is now getting a lot more calories, this is a big issue for her as she is trying really hard to balance her calorie intake. Is the Vivoactive 3 more accurate thanks to the HR monitor or should she adjust the calories down?

She has used the HR on the watch for a couple of workouts but finds it takes a long time before the monitor starts see her heart rate elevate, she has been having similar issues with the Garmin HR belt and the Wahoo Tickr. seems to take several minutes to catchup with her efforts.

I am thinking of upgrading from FR225 to Vivoactive 3. I do run 2-3 times a week, road or trails, couple half marathons throughout the year and (with a background in maths 😉 ) I do like my statistics 🙂 … The FR225 does almost all I need from the running perspective, however I would like to have a newer watch with support & navigation & smart notifications… However, I do not know whether it is worth the money or whether rather not buy a regular runners watch (FR235, M430, … ?) … Whats your opinion ? Would you recommend me to go with the Vivoactive 3 ? Or raise my 350EUR budget 🙂 ? Any other suggestions ?

IMHO the most important question is: Do you want a watch that is in mainly operated via touch (VA3) or du you prefer buttons (FR235) ? I still prefer buttons because I think this works better in rain, with gloves or in a hurry/race situation. If this doesn’t matter to you, the VA3 probably offers a more modern platform and more flexibility for activities other than running.

I might be missing this in the comments but i’m not sure. I just switched from a Vivoactive HR to a Vivoactive3… when i would go to the gym i would be able to display work out time and calories burned. I can’t see to find a profile that allows me to do that ? Can anyone make any suggestions?

I’ve been researching smart watches and this model seems to tick all the boxes for me (hr, gps, fitness, Golf, small size etc).

However, when reading customer reviews on google and amazon the watch seems to suffer from really poor quality software and battery life (less than 1day!) – significant % of responses are 2stars or less with similar complaints.

Do you know if this a general problem with the watch and / or are Garmin planning to solve this problem?

Based upon my 2+ months of use, I’m unsure where the negative reviews are originating from. I’m a triathlete who works out at least 6 days a week, one or more times per day. It is necessary for me to charge the watch every 36-48 hours based upon my use. I have read about problems with cold weather use, but being in Michigan, have experienced none of this. Ran 11 miles with it yesterday at 10 degrees: no issues.

I have only 2 gripes with the device: the band becomes uncomfortable at times. I’ve attempted to replace but the replacement wasn’t suitable so will continue to search alternatives. When swimming, the screen changes such that it’s necessary to swipe through to get back to the workout.

Hey Chad, how many GPS hours are you averaging in your 3-4 day battery cycle? I’m getting 3-4 days, but only around 4 hours of GPS use. I did talk to Garmin. They sent me a replacement cable, and I am monitoring it.

I work out 5 days a week, walking, spinning, cycling, weight training. I have no problem with the battery life. It usually is good for a few days, (36-48 hours) which is fine. When I cycle for short distances I use the GPS otherwise I turn it off when doing longer rides on my road bike. I use my Garmin Edge for that.

I had an Apple Watch that couldn’t make it through the day, let alone a 40 mile bike ride so this is heaven for me. However, I have had other issues with this watch, such as the HR dropping. Waiting for the Fall for everything new to replace this baby.

For now, I am good – these devices just all seem to improve with each iteration.

The Vivoactive 3 is currently listed at $199 on Target’s website. I pointed this out to Ray before but no response. This is a fantastic price. I know ray doesn’t get a kickback grim Target sales but thought people should know.

How much of a difference does it make which wrist you wear your band on? I am left handed but I only eat and write with my left hand I do all other things right handed. I prefer to wear my watch on my left hand but want to know if it makes a difference and if so how much of a difference does it make? Since you wear them on both wrists when trying them out I figured you would know. Thank you

Hi, I am wanting to know if you can record RUNs during the cardio mode? I use CARDIO mode whilst doing bootcamps; during bootcamps I am made to do laps (runs) outside but short of stopping cardio mode to start the run mode to stop the run mode when I am finished to start the cardio mode I am not sure how to incorporate the two together.

Are there any GPS watches that have a Virtual Racer feature or something where I can compete against a run or bike ride from a previous day on that same route for $300 or less? I like the idea of the Vivoactive 3 or the FitBit, but I want a feature like the Virtual racer without having to pay another $150 or so to get it. I really wish they would also have music…not so much for running but so I can workout at the gym without the danger of smashing a weight onto my phone.

I don’t think you mentioned this anywhere, but it is critical to my needs on the track for my 400 meter training. Is there a stopwatch on here, and is it easy to use while running, (tap the screen, or push the button). Thank you for the wonderful review.

Has anyone had problem with broadcasting hr to an edge? If I do this then it stays connected for no more than 5 minutes before the signal is lost and not regained.

It’s not the edge 520 as it doesn’t do this then connected with my old vivosmart hr or the proper chest strap. I’ve reset the edge a to no avail.

In addition my VivoActive 3 was not recording HR properly at all (a rowing machine where I peak at 155 ish barely reached 100) so on advice from Garmin i returned to shop and exchanged for a new one. I haven’t tested hr accuracy yet but the new watch again loses broadcast to the edge

I will go back to Garmin but wondered if anyone else has encountered it and has a solution. I’m on the 2.9 software update

I have found a resolution (I think) to the broadcast problem. I noticed at the same time that the HR broadcast was lost on my edge it also lost phone connection but only temporarily. So I turned off the bluetooth connection on the watch while it was in broadcast mode.

This seems to work – for both rides on my morning commute I kept HR connection all the way through.

To add further – unfortunately the resolution above is not working. Previously with every ride I’d lost connection with the broadcast HR but after disconnecting the watch from my phone the next 3 rides were all fine.

So I thought it was a good workaround but the subsequent 2 rides have both disconnected from the edge. So back to the drawing board. I’ll raise it with Garmin and report back

Good luck raising this issue with Garmin. I just got off an online chat with them for the very same issue. I explained that I purchased the VA3 over the Ionic or AW3 largely due to the ability to broadcast HR (for Zwift riding/running). Their response was that it was only designed to broadcast to other Garmin devices (as if they somehow made the ANT+ signal detect what device was receiving the signal and crash the watch if it wasn’t a Garmin). They told me it wouldn’t work to broadcast to my computer with an ANT+ dongle. I would like to hear what their excuse is for your issue since you are trying to broadcast to a Garmin device.

Hmm, I haven’t heard of that. From an ANT+ standpoint, it’s just one-direction there. So honestly the watch has no idea who is listening on the other end, be it Zwift or another Garmin device. It’s like shouting into the woods: Perhaps someone is there, perhaps not.

It sounds like instead there’s a more generic bug/problem with broadcasting that you’re hitting. 🙁

HR display not working with Garmin Edge 1000. Here’s the issue, you connect to your Garmin (or other device), it shows your heart rate displayed and then you go for a ride and 5-10 minutes later the HR disappears. Thought it was user error, but nope – software problem

I spent a long time talking with Garmin the other day and they are aware of this issue. Fix in the works sometime in the next few weeks (3?, 4?). I actually sent them a file from my watch. For more updates you can check the garminforums board –link to forums.garmin.com

I got the vivoactive 3 for Christmas and have really liked it so far. The one thing I have noticed is that during a trainer ride the watch doesn’t appear to update my HR correctly. I don’t have an activity started because I am using zwift to track the activity. No matter where i position the watch it doesn’t track correctly. I was curious so i just started an activity on the watch during my trainer ride and it tracked perfectly. Do you know if there is something different in the sensor during workouts compared to just day to day activities?

This is my second VA3 after first was returned when the optical HR sensor failed and would no longer display HR.

Both VA3’s had ant+ sensor connection problems: Neither watch would stay connected to Garmin ant+ magnetless speed and cadence sensors during trainer ride (indoor rollers). Both VA3’s would connect and disconnect for a few minutes then reconnect to the sensors but would not stay connected during the whole ride on indoor rollers. As an experiment, I tried My 935 on one wrist and the VA3 other wrist during several training rides. The 935 maintained constant connection to the Garmin sensors during rides the and both VA3’s would disconnect and reconnect. Contacted Garmin regarding the VA3 ant+ connection problems and was told a software fix is in the works within 2 weeks. I own 4 Garmin watches and I want to like this watch but the ant+ connection problems must be fixed soon or I will return this 2nd VA3 as well.

I have the exact same problem. The external HRM sensor (Rhythm+) constantly gets disconnected from my VA3 during my runs. Even worse the watch doesn’t let you know when it gets disconnected, so I have to look at the HR graph afterwards and all the jumps from 180 to 50-60 reveal the points of disconnect

The more I get to know VA3 the more it seems like the software is not ready for prime time.

I have been having the same connection issues with Garmin cadence and speed sensors. And the HR info has been pretty sketchy. I connected the watch last night to my laptop to check for an update: it now has a blue triangle of death. Support is aware this is an issue and is hoping to have a solution “soon”. Meanwhile, I have a bricked watch. I can send in for a replacement, but it seems many other people are having the same sensor connection issue. This being my 4th Garmin watch, plus a boatload of other Garmin gear (sensors, 820, etc) I’m really disappointed. It’s been 60 days with the watch, so I can’t even return it. The watch is NOT ready for prime time, even now.